


Burnt Norton

by larutanrepus (jumpernouis)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Season/Series 12, Angel Mojo, Angel!Reader, Angels, Archangel Gabriel (Supernatural), Attempt at Humor, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Dementors, Drama & Romance, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Female pronouns, Implied Sexual Content, Men of Letters Bunker, Michael (mentioned) - Freeform, Mild Language, Monsters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Third Person, Raphael (mentioned) - Freeform, Reader-Insert, Slow Build, Torture, a bit of sass, female vessel, getting lucifer in the cage, some spells
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2018-09-18 14:17:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 65,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9388880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumpernouis/pseuds/larutanrepus
Summary: "The younger Winchester looked around the library, his eyes inevitably landing on the parchment that was still sitting next to him. There was something so inviting about it, almost calling out for him to pronounce the words and witness the results.The whole thing was crazy and reckless, but then again, that’s the way it always had been and the way it would always be.We’re not going to waste this opportunity, he thought and subtly nodded his head before clearing his throat, ‘Let’s do it.’"





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from T. S. Eliot's, _Four Quartets_ , I think it's somewhat related to this story.
> 
> It's proof read and I tried my best to make it as grammatically correct as possible, so pardon any mistake or orthographic error.
> 
> Can be read as a reader-insert since I won't be describing the character to an infinite detail, as long as you don't mind being a sassy archangel :)

‘So, all we have to do is say these fancy words and we’ll get free access to the Cage?’ Dean asked as he made his way down the Bunker’s metallic staircase, his eyes analysing the old parchment in his hands, stained with bold red ink.

‘I think so, yeah.’ Sam mumbled, a bit distracted by the immensity of it all. He still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that it was just that easy, just a quick saying of words and all the sudden they could control the Cage and get Lucifer in it for good. It was never that simple.

‘And we’re sure we can trust Crowley?’ Dean stopped at the bottom of the steps leading to the library and looked back at his younger brother.

Sam looked around, his mind going hectic with the weight of it all, ‘It’s worth a shot. I mean, Crowley wants Lucifer locked up as much as we do. You think he’s up to something?’.

‘He’s still the King of Hell, let’s not forget that,’ Dean remarked, walking towards the library table, unrolling the parchment on top of the wooden surface and smoothing it out. Sam joined him and reached out to switch on the closest table lamp, allowing his eyes to drift along the messy handwriting in the paper, trying to recognize some of the words.

‘I’m gonna look this up, see if I can find anything that will assure we’re on the right track here.’ Sam announced, determined with the task he had just set upon himself, and moved to get his laptop, currently sitting on top of one of the arm chairs in the library, the place he had left it the previous night after an extensive research on Wolf’s Bane and its uses.

 

Dean straightened up and thought about it. His hunter instincts were telling him that there were some red flags about the whole situation, but a part of him was glittering with hope at the prospect of getting close to slam Lucifer back in the Cage. Crowley wanted to regain full control over Hell, a proper reason to be helping them out, right?

 So, if this scrawny old piece of parchment was the only thing they had that offered a possibility of solving it all, he was willing to give it a try.

 

‘I’m heading to the kitchen, you want anything?’

‘Uh… No, I’m fine,’ Sam replied from his seat at the library’s table. He pulled the parchment closer to him and read out the words _“Custodes Portas Infernus”_ written in thick red ink right at the top. Sam allowed his fingers to run over the surface and feel the lumps of the ink (or what he was hoping to be ink), something about it made him feel chills on the back of his neck; nothing like any other spell he had come across, no matter how gruesome it was, he had never felt this strange feeling, they never had spiked this kind of reaction on him. Sam looked away from the parchment for a second, pondering if Dean also got that feeling when he had been holding it. Snapping out of it, his fingers flew across the keyboard, typing out the exact words whilst his eyes searched for the most accurate translation provided. When he found one that seemed appropriate, his lips whispered out, ‘The one that guards the gates of Hell…’

 

‘What was that?’ Dean asked, emerging from the hallway with a sandwich in one hand and a beer on the other.

‘The one that guards the gates of Hell,’ Sam repeated, this time louder and with more certainty,

‘The one that…’ Dean squinted at the words, ‘Are we summoning someone? I thought we were just opening the Cage… You know, like a tunnel or a secret passageway.’

Sam hadn’t thought about that, ‘We can’t do this.’

‘What? Sam, are you crazy?’

‘Dean, if we’re going to summon someone… or something that is entitled of guarding the gates of Hell, we should be prepared for what we might be facing. I don’t think we can go into this with such light-heartedness.’

‘Sammy, we could be onto something here!’ Dean paused, running a hand through his hair, ‘What do you think we could be up against?’

Sam leaned back on his chair, turning to face his older brother still standing with his hands full, ‘Don’t know. It could be anything. It could be even worse than Lucifer himself.’

‘Or it could be our shot at ending this once and for all. Come on Sammy, we’ve dealt with God’s freaking sister, how bad can it be?’

Sam remained silent, watching his brother finally taking a seat at the head of the table and biting down on his sandwich, ‘I think we should do some research first.’

Dean rolled his eyes and set his sandwich down, propping his elbows on the table and leaning forward, ‘Well I think we’re wasting time. If it makes you comfortable, we’ll put up all the wards we know. Devil’s trap, holy oil, angel sigils… you name it, we put it up. Hell, we can even get some silver bullets or rock salt shells. Something ought to get the bastard.’

 

The younger Winchester looked around the library, his eyes inevitably landing on the parchment that was still sitting next to him. There was something so inviting about it, almost calling out for him to pronounce the words and witness the results. The whole thing was crazy and reckless, but then again, that’s the way it always had been and the way it would always be. _We’re not going to waste this opportunity_ , he thought and subtly nodded his head before clearing his throat, ‘Let’s do it.’

 

 

A while later, in the Bunker’s dungeon, the Winchesters had everything set up – Sam had prepared the ingredients that the parchment deemed necessary for the deed and Dean had set up all the wards they could think of, splaying them on the walls. He joined Sam next to the metallic table where Sam had set a bowl containing all the required items and next to it sat the piece of parchment, its words seeming to jump out to catch Sam’s attention.

Dean fiddled with his lighter in the pocket of his jeans, eyeing the room cautiously. Sam took a deep breath before starting to read out the words laid awkwardly on the paper, stealing glances around them in case anything changed and pronounced the final words with firmness, at the same time scraping the match against the rugged surface of the match box before throwing it inside the bowl, its contents roaring to life as an auburn flame rose from the recipient, forming a fierce fire that died down as quickly as it had formed itself. Sam was panting heavily, his mouth slightly agape, eyes going crazy searching the entire room around them, but nothing seemed to have happened. Everything remained the same, except for the ring of holy oil circling the devil’s trap that had come to life with fire when Dean, at the same time as Sam had finished the summoning, had tossed his lit lighter towards it.

Dean was also searching the room, stunned about the normality of everything, until his eyes landed on Sam and both brothers just stood there, trying to figure it out, endless questions running through their heads. Sam picked up the parchment and held it up in front of them, ‘Do you think I pronounced it wrong?’

‘I don’t know, Sam. I didn’t take Latin in school…’ Dean’s remark was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a solid body hitting the ground. Both Winchesters looked away from the paper and let out expressions of surprise when they saw the new presence in the room.

‘What the…?’

 

In the middle of the Devil’s trap they found a girl, lying on her back, wearing a white retro bathing suit, eyes closed and wet, as if she had just climbed out of a swimming pool.

The Winchesters were stunned and neither of them moved, still not registering the situation. Suddenly the girl took a sharp intake of breath, opening her eyes and sitting up, which caused Sam and Dean to grab their guns, aiming them at the stranger that was now rubbing her eyes, whilst still trying to regain her breath. They walked around the table, moving closer to the still flaming ring of holy oil, their guns directed towards the girl.

‘Hey!’ Dean called out to get her attention. She turned to face them, looking them over for a while, before taking in her surroundings and inspecting her body. Sam exchanged a glance with Dean, worrying about what this girl was… _who_ this girl was.

 

She started rising to her feet causing both boys to prepare their guns for a possible shot.

Once she was finally standing, she noticed _everything_ in the room: the sigils shining bright on the walls, the traps on the floor, the stash of holy water bottles, salt and blood on the table, up to the two men in front of her with their guns aimed at her chest.

‘Quite the hospitality…’she mumbled and revealed her voice for the first time, a hint of a British accent behind it.

‘Who are you?’ Dean demanded, holding his gun with more determination now that the threat was more imminent.

She looked directly at him, ‘You summon me here and I still have to introduce myself?’, amusement coloured her voice, accompanying a smile, but since neither of the boys spoke, she continued, ‘I’m Auriel.’

 

It was like a switch went on in Sam’s brain. He had read about her; when they had just found the Bunker and decided to settle in, Sam spent a large part of his spare time going over the books in the Men of Letters’ library. He’d come across her name in an old book, but never made much of it. Until now.

He slowly lowered his gun, getting looks of confusion from his brother who whispered, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’

‘These won’t work on her, Dean,’ he replied, his eyes not leaving the girl in white standing in front of him, little water droplets falling from her hair and onto the Dungeon’s floor. Dean made a face at his brother – maybe he had finally lost it for good, ‘You wanna share with the rest of the class?’

‘It’s Auriel, an archangel.’

 

Auriel nodded slowly with a little smirk on her lips, not breaking eye contact with Sam. It was like she had put him in a trance and he couldn’t look away.

‘A what?’ Dean looked back and forth between Sam and Auriel, slowly starting to lower his gun still clasped between his hands, ‘No, Sammy, that’s impossible. There’s only four of them.’

‘The four original ones. Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and… Lucifer. There’s more of us – less powerful, of course, but still in a vast number,’ Auriel spoke with calmness, finally breaking eye contact with Sam and turning her gaze to Dean.

‘But you’re very powerful,’ Sam said, squinting his eyes at her.

‘You could say that,’ Auriel pondered Sam’s statement, crossing her arms over her chest and switching her weight to rest on her left foot – bare and cold against the concrete floor (not that it bothered her), ‘I was created by them, each one granting me their most prized skill. They taught me everything I know. I guess that’s what separates me from the rest of us.’

‘So you’re basically a combination of the four Teletubbies? Great, because one wasn’t enough,’ Dean rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

‘I’m here because you called,’ Auriel stated, frowning her brows at the boys, ‘What were you expecting?’

‘We weren’t expecting you,’ Sam spoke up before Dean could get a word in, ‘To be honest, we didn’t know what we should be expecting, hence all of this,’ he gestured around them at all the things plastered on the walls and on the floor.

 

Auriel inspected the room once again and uncrossed her arms, ‘You clearly didn’t know what you were getting yourselves into.’

‘Powerful or not, those held your daddies,’ the older Winchester pointed at the holy oil fire ring and the sigils around it, ‘Don’t think they won’t hold you.’

This girl was starting to bother him with her attitude and the fact that Sam seemed to be under her spell made him want to raise his gun back up, but his brain told him that it would be useless to waste bullets on her. He’d learn from past experiences.

‘Don’t be so sure,’ Auriel stated and with a flick of her wrist the fire went out and the sigils were scorched, leaving behind the concrete floor of the Dungeon, as if they were never there in the first place. Dean ignored what his subconscious was telling him and raised his gun again, with a determined look on his face. Sam walked over to him and grabbed at his flannel’s sleeve, ‘Dean, it’s not going to help. She’s been sitting there all this time when it’s clear she could’ve gotten out whenever she wanted, yet she didn’t kill us.’

‘Why are you being so reckless about this, Sam?’

‘Lads, let’s all calm down, alright? I’m not going to kill you,’ Auriel raised both her hands in an assuring way, ‘I can put it back, if you want.’. She flicked her wrist again and the fire surged back to life, the sigils carving themselves on the floor just like they had been moments prior.

 

Dean sighed loudly, closing his eyes for a second, shaking his head, ‘Sam, we gotta talk about this.’

Sam nodded, looking back at Auriel, standing in the middle of the Devil’s trap, fire surrounding her. She had a light to her that kept drawing him in, like a magnet that he couldn’t fight. He averted his gaze from her and turned to Dean, ‘Yeah… yeah, we do.’

After assessing his brother’s state, Dean let out an exasperated sigh, looking back at Auriel, who was now observing her surroundings with her hands clasped in front of her, ‘I better call Cass.’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an alternative to season 12, obviously with a lot of differences. It's also my first story in the fandom, so please be nice!! 
> 
> Criticism, nice comments and just whatever you want to say are always welcome and taken into consideration! This is supposed to have multiple chapters, but it will depend on the reaction it gets (if it sucks, I'll go sit in the corner and never bring this up again).
> 
> xx


	2. Chapter 2

Both Winchesters stood outside the door leading to the Dungeon, where Auriel still stood in the middle of the holy oil fire ring, accompanied by Castiel and Crowley. Sam was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed at his chest, observing his brother silently walking around the small corridor, face scrunched up in thought.

‘What do we do now?’ Dean questioned, leaning against the wall opposite to Sam.

‘We can ask her for help,’ Sam responded, his mind travelling back to Auriel and how she looked so peaceful. She had a characteristic glow to her, an electrifying force that surrounded her and that sent his mind wondering off through thoughts that made him feel giddy. He’d never admit, if asked.

‘No one knows anything about her, Sam,’ Dean snapped, ‘Cass doesn’t recognize her and neither does Crowley. How do we know we’re not dealing with Abaddon’s daughter or something?’

‘Cass confirmed the fact that she has Grace.’

‘Goddamn it, Sammy, snap out of it,’ Dean clapped his hands in front of Sam’s face to get his attention.

‘Out of what?’

‘Look, I get it, okay? She’s …’ Dean tried to think of an appropriate word to describe the new presence in the Bunker, but the things that were passing though his brain were everything but appropriate, ‘I mean, she’s wearing that bathing suit that fits her _very_ well, but you need to focus on the bigger picture here,’ he paused, adding in a muffled tone, ‘I can’t believe I’m the one who needs to call you out.’

 

Sam frowned at his older brother, ‘Why are you being so suspicious about her?’

‘Why are you making heart eyes at her?’ Dean countered, crossing his arms over his chest, mirroring his brother. Sam rolled his eyes, getting off the wall and reaching out for the door handle, ‘I think we should just go ahead and talk to her. We’ve got Cass now, he can help us if anything goes sideways… and we’ve got Crowley as well, for some reason.’

‘He insisted on coming. Said he had provided the spell so he should have the right to see how it had turned out.’

 

They walked into the Dungeon making all heads turn, a trail of a conversation lost between Crowley’s lips.

‘Everything alright in here?’ Dean asked Castiel, taking a seat on the metallic table, followed by Sam who stood at the side of it.

‘Yes, Dean,’ Castiel spoke, trying – and failing - to maintain his voice hushed, ‘Auriel is an archangel.’

‘Thank you, Castiel,’ Auriel smiled at the angel, who looked at her with an apologetic smile, ‘Am I off the leash now? Free to go?’

‘We’d like to talk to you,’ Sam paused, meeting Auriel’s eyes, ‘If that’s okay.’

She thought about it for a moment, taking a good look at everything around the room and at herself before looking back up at Sam with an eyebrow raised, ‘Surely you aren’t expecting me to just stay here.’

Sam stuttered on his words, ‘Of course, right, we should probably, you know, give you some clothes and some towels and, yeah, just kind of have this conversation somewhere else.’

Dean shot Sam a _What the fuck are you doing_ look as Auriel, once again, flicked her wrist causing the flames to die down and the sigils to disappear, causing several reactions from the individuals in the room. Castiel had an incredulous look on his face and Crowley had let out a silent, ‘Bloody hell.’.

 

Auriel walked out of the devil’s trap, past Dean, Castiel and Crowley and stopped in front of Sam, whose breathing had just gotten a bit faster. There was a clear height difference between them, with Sam towering over Auriel’s smaller frame, requiring Auriel to look up to meet Sam’s eyes, quite similar to hers in the way they sparkled. For a split second they both got lost in the colours that swam in each other’s eyes and in the depths that they allowed to see - true windows to the soul. Auriel was intoxicated by the feeling of Sam’s soul – a glowing spectrum with such energy and fierceness that seemed to overcome her, one that she had seen before in the one she used to confide everything, the one who she felt the closest to, the one who had locked her up and now, in the one who had set her free, a different person, the same aura, the same feeling in her gut.

She looked away, blinking to clear her head out of her dazed state and turned her back on a perplexed Sam Winchester who was left staring at the back of her head. Dean had hopped off the table and walked past the both figures standing in the way towards the door, heading out into the Bunker’s corridors. Castiel was quick to follow and Crowley had left with a snap of his fingers, leaving only Sam and Auriel in the room. She still wasn’t facing him when she asked, ‘Who are you?’

Sam gulped, realizing they were alone, ‘My name’s Sam Winchester.’

Alarms went off in Auriel’s brain and she narrowed her eyes, focusing on the source of all the commotion this name had brought up. She recognized it, but she couldn’t specifically say what it meant – it was like watching a blurred image play through her head. She turned back to look at Sam, a puzzled look on her face that quickly turned into an apathetic one, ‘Lead the way, Sam.’

 

As they walked down the hallway, heading towards the library, Auriel observed Sam in front of her, his broad shoulders covered in a plaid shirt, his hair swaying gently with each step he took. Why did everything about him seem so familiar to her? Why was she here? How did they manage to _free_ her?

Her head was boiling with unanswered questions and Auriel felt like maybe she should put up a guard. This could all be a trap; it could be her imagination playing a trick on her. Being locked away for as long as she had been really does a number on you.

The seemingly endless hallway had lead way to a spacious room decked with bookshelves, a large table and chairs. She noticed the angel Castiel alongside the other man, Dean, standing by a table with the world map on its surface. Sam headed in their direction, but Auriel stopped at the top of the steps leading to the adjacent room. She remained wary about the situation, it couldn't be this simple. Maybe she was still inside the Dome and this was one of his elaborate plans, giving her a sense of freedom and release to then go back and take it all away. It was his idea of torture.

Sam picked up the shirt that was on top of the table, inspecting it, realizing it was Dean's shirt, before asking, ‘Is this what she’s supposed to wear?’

‘Well, Sam, it'll do for now. She can go find herself some fancy clothes after she agrees to help us,’ Dean replied.

Sam had raised an eyebrow at his brother, but bit his tongue at the unexplainable pang of jealousy forming in his core; she was going to wear Dean’s shirt.

 

‘Here, you can put this on,’ Sam stretched his arm towards Auriel, prompting her to come forward. She slowly walked towards Sam, her eyes sweeping the place around her, trying hard not to fish around what was going on the heads of the two men and took the shirt in her hands. It smelled like eucalyptus and musk and when she put it on it fell to the middle of her thighs, the sleeves going past her hands, giving her sweater paws, _well_ , shirt paws.

The ambience in the room tinged with awkwardness and suspense as the three men watched Auriel put on Dean’s shirt, neither of them making a sound.

‘Well?’

 

They came back to reality, focusing on the seriousness of the moment. Dean cleared his throat and took a seat at the table, followed by Sam. Castiel, who was still eyeing Auriel and trying to figure out why she was a stranger to him, chose to remain in his standing position. Auriel crossed her arms over her chest, taking in a deep breath as she waited for the upcoming questions. She was willing to cooperate with them, mainly because none of the men displayed a dark aura, but Auriel was keen on getting some answers herself.

‘So you’re an archangel,‘ Dean started, his eyes fixed on Auriel, ‘And, I’m just guessing here, you’re the Guardian of the Gates of Hell?’

Sam cleared his throat, leaning forward to rest his forearms on the table, ‘We had a summoning spell for the Guardian of the Gates of Hell,’ he explained.

Auriel raised her chin slightly, not committing to any description, ‘Where did you get the spell?’

‘Crowley, he was in the Dungeon,’ Sam cleared, ‘He found it.’

‘Lucifer is on the loose,’ Dean stated, clearing off any more interruptions, ‘He’s out of the Cage and we need to slam him back in,’ he paused watching Sam through the corner of his eye, ‘Are you willing to help us?’

‘He’s out of the Cage?’ Auriel felt an involuntary shiver run through her at the prospect of Lucifer walking the Earth again, but she was able to keep her tone steady and emotionless, ‘How?’

‘How will you help or how’d he got out?’ Dean wondered, squinting at Auriel.

Sam shook his head, ‘Auriel, it doesn’t matter how he got out. We just need to know if you’re going to help us.’. He was well aware that part of the reason why Lucifer had gotten out in the first place was because of him and he didn’t want Auriel to know that. _She doesn’t need to know_.

 

Auriel was alarmed by the news. She had been away from everything for so long, locked away from all of them – except for Gabriel, who occasionally popped by to check in and to spend some time with her, always grazing her with mountains of candy that she claimed she couldn’t appreciate, only tasting the numerous molecules that formed the sugary food, until Gabriel, _Gabe_ , had said _“You can if you want to.”_ and from then on she would let the sweets melt in her mouth whilst she busied herself exploring the taste of them. Then Gabriel had stopped visiting and she never had any sweets again - or company, for the matter. Now, being back on Earth felt different. The air seemed heavier, her vessel felt strange and she found herself having to gather up a lot more power just to perform simple acts.

She knew he had to be locked away, for the sake of everyone, but she doubted she could face a battle against _him_ and win. At least, she couldn’t do it alone.

‘I’m not buying my ticket to the slaughterhouse, we need to get the other archangels to help us,’ Auriel clarified, her gaze switching between the three figures in front of her.

Sam and Dean exchanged glances that pushed the responsibility of having to give Auriel the news about her ancestors between them. Castiel was the one to speak up, ‘We can’t get the others. Raphael and Gabriel are both dead and Michael is in the Cage.’

 

A flame flashed through Auriel’s eyes turning them into an intense bright colour, going back to their original colour when she allowed herself to breath and feel the air swelling her lungs. Everything was wrong; Lucifer was free, Michael was trapped in a prison that wasn’t meant for him and both Raphael and Gabriel were dead – _dead_. She was fighting an inner battle, everything inside of her seeming to burst. It was up to her to mend this sticky situation by locking Lucifer back in _his_ Cage.

‘I’ll do it,’ she stated, her voice sounding more secure than what she felt within her.

The Winchesters let out a sigh of relief whilst Castiel stepped forward, a questioning look on his face, ‘Why don’t I recognize you?’

 

Allowing herself to slip back into the witty side of her – courtesy of Gabriel – Auriel pointedly avoided the angel’s question, ‘That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Where do I start?’

Dean shifted in his seat, opening and closing his mouths a few times before finally asking, ‘What’s with the outfit?’

Sam elbowed him, giving his brother a reprimanding look to which Dean raised both his hands in defence, ‘What? Someone had to do it.’

‘My vessel was busy floating around in the swimming pool when you called,’ Auriel commented, satisfying Dean’s curiosity (Sam’s too, he just wouldn’t admit it). ‘I already told you who I am, you know what I can do, I see no loophole in the ordeal. I don’t know why you don’t recognize me.’, she spoke towards Castiel. Of course he didn’t recognize her, she doubted anyone would. She had been kept away for so long and they had made sure no one knew of her existence after her rampage. A moment when she had lost control of herself and erratically lashed out at _everything_ within her grasp granted her a lifetime secured in a bright white room – the Dome.

‘We should figure out a game plan,’ Dean proceeded, ‘Set a strategy, find Lucifer…’

 

Dean’s words started to fade in the air as Auriel stopped paying attention, focusing instead on Sam, who was listening closely to his brother and contributing to the conversation himself. She knew it was wrong and that if Raphael ever came to know about it, he would scold her, telling her she should stay out of the humans’ thoughts, that it was reckless and degrading. But he was dead and she never had been one to follow all those stupid rules.

She read his mind, swam through his visions and gruesome memories. Then it all made sense: why his name had erupted a reaction within her, why his soul felt so similar to _his_ , why she felt so close to him. Sam was Lucifer’s vessel – his _true_ vessel.

Auriel cleared her mind, exiting Sam’s personal thoughts feeling like her Grace had been shredded to pieces. This couldn’t be real, it _had_ to be one of Lucifer’s tricks to persuade her into a feeling of freedom and then taking it back, laughing in her face. She was going to fight it.

 

‘Stop,’ Auriel raised her voice, silencing the conversation in the room. Sam and Dean were watching her with confused looks on their faces, but Castiel seemed to have caught on with what was going through Auriel’s mind. The intricate combination of colours that filled the minds of the celestial beings seemed to be nothing but just that to humans, but Castiel understood them, the black, the red and the golden. ‘You think you can trick me, but not this time,’ Auriel continued, ‘I know who you are,’ she looked at Sam, determination plastered on her face, and raised her hand, summoning up the power to blast him away, ‘And I’m not letting you escape this time.’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while, but here it is - the second chapter!
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and for the time you take to read it! x


	3. Chapter 3

It could have been a disaster. 

  
Auriel was ready to send Sam into oblivion, blinded by the possibility of Lucifer being the one in charge of this intricate scenario. All the pieces were there, fitting together like a puzzle. Who else could have gotten a hand of the summoning spell but him?  
It _would_ have been a disaster if Castiel hadn’t stepped in and sent Auriel flying backwards, making her back hit the wall before she slumped to the ground, still under the effect of Castiel’s power.

The brothers were perplexed with the sudden change in Auriel’s attitude, wide eyed at the scene that had just unrolled in front of them. ‘Thanks,’ Sam mumbled at Castiel, watching wide eyed as Auriel struggled against her confines. The angel also seemed to be struggling to keep his hold on Auriel. She was fighting back and since she was more powerful, he found it difficult to maintain her under his control.

'She thinks you’re Lucifer,’ Cass let out, now visually struggling as Auriel was starting to get back on her feet, making him slowly drop to his knees. Dean stood up immediately, calling out his name, and marched towards Castiel who was now on his knees, 'I can’t hold her forever.’

Sam was also standing up, keeping a distance from Auriel who had managed to break free of the invisible force surrounding her and was back on her feet, the shirt she was wearing looking a bit dishevelled.

'Auriel,’ he called gently, 'It’s Sam, okay? I’m not…. I’m not Lucifer.’

'Auriel,’ this time it was Castiel’s voice reverberating through the room from his position on the Bunker’s cement floor, 'It’s not him. There’s no Grace or wings, it’s just a vessel.’

 

She stopped and closed her eyes, a distant memory filling her mind like fog spreading through the water surface on a chilly morning. 

_“She lost control,” Michael spat out, “This time she left a trail of bodies behind.”_

_“Brother, it was a small mistake,” Lucifer said dismissively, “I don’t think we should be so harsh on her.”_

_She was standing next to Gabriel, her hands smeared with blood and her face showing an extreme amount of fear - it made Raphael sneer at her, but Gabe gave her a reassuring wink. It would be fine, everything would be fine._

_“You were supposed to look after her, it was the only reason why we allowed this foolish trip,” Raphael had joined Michael’s side in the argument and Auriel felt herself shrink._

_“She made mistakes, there’s no denying that,” Gabe was going to stand up for her like he always did, “But we can’t just lock her away.”_

_“I’m with little Gabe here,” Lucifer put his arm around Gabriel, Auriel being left in the middle of the four of them. She felt so small. “It would only spur her on. And we don’t want our beloved Auriel to become an uncontrollable ball of rage, do we?”_

_It had been his idea to take her to Earth. During her previous times on Earth she had been escorted by the four of them, always making sure she understood the safest ways to navigate throughout the planet, but this time he had insisted they went alone. He had taken her to a different area than the one they used to roam, filled with dark energy and black auras flying all around. He saw how it had affected her, but showed no intention to guide her through it._ _She felt threatened and she had been trained to respond to threats, so she did what they had taught her to: she neutralized the threat. Lucifer had given her a comforting pat in the back before bringing her back to Heaven, where they were now all gathered assessing the situation._

 _Michael seemed to ponder it, he was always in charge of making decisions, “Then we won’t lock her,” he announced, “But this was her last time out of Heaven.”_  

 

She opened her eyes mere seconds after, though it had felt like a lifetime. Sam’s beautiful eyes were still on her, so much emotion present in there, emotions that only a human could show. He hadn’t responded when she had threatened him; he couldn’t have, because he was human - he was Sam Winchester.

Her shoulders slumped as she inhaled, 'I apologize,’ she let out on a shake voice, barely audible.

 

Sam didn’t have time to process what she had said before she stormed towards Castiel, still struggling on the floor, which alarmed Dean. She reached out a hand towards the angel and he accepted it, standing up. Auriel placed her hand on the side of Cass’ face and a glowing light was absorbed by his vessel’s skin, 'I’m grateful for your intervention,’ she whispered with a soft smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

'Alright, I’m sure this would make a great chick-flick moment, but can anyone explain what the hell just happened here?’ Dean asked, hands raised in question.

'We have to find Lucifer,’ Auriel pointedly ignored Dean’s question, stepping back from Castiel, 'Every second that he spends out of the Cage, brings us one step closer to Armageddon… or worse.’

 

Before anyone could speak up, a flutter of wings was heard throughout the room as Auriel exited the Bunker.

'Where did she go?’ Dean said, looking around.

'She must have gone after Lucifer,’ Sam breathed out, massaging his temples.

'What a team player. Did she even listen to the plan?’

'Cass, what was that all about?’

Castiel thought about Sam’s question before giving him a calculated answer, 'She was under the impression that you were Lucifer. Sam, she must have…’

'Yeah, I know,’ Sam interrupted Castiel, not wanting to hear him voice what was playing through his mind.  _She must have realized Sam was Lucifer’s vessel._

'What do we do now?’ Dean asked, exasperated, 'She could have gone anywhere. We’re going to end up having to look for two bastards with wings rather than one and if Lucifer was already one hell of an opponent, I don’t even want to imagine those two paired up.’

'They’re not going to pair up, you saw how she reacted just now,’ Sam intervened, 'But I agree with you. We should keep track of her.’

'Well,’ Castiel, who seemed to be deep in thought up until now, ignoring the brothers who were voicing their own thoughts, spoke up calmly, 'It would make sense if Auriel went straight to Hell. Not… in a, uh, literal way, she would never…’

The angel’s rambling was cut off by Dean, 'We get it, Cass. Are you sure about this?’ he asked, hands on his hips, 'Because I don’t want to pay a visit downstairs more times than the ones absolutely needed… Which in my whole time of being, have been one too many.’

'It makes sense, doesn’t it?’ Sam said, standing up from his chair, one of his hands scratching his chin smoothly, 'Auriel is the guardian of the gates of Hell, besides, we’re trying to find Lucifer, so obviously, she would start looking there.’

 

They were all on the same page, but seemed a bit reticent about having to go to Hell to find an archangel who they weren’t even sure was there. On the other hand, all the dots seemed to connect, so the chances of Auriel being in Hell were high.

Dean was going through his phone, his left hand still on his hip and his face scrunched up in concentration, 'I’m going to call Crowley. He can tell us if she’s there or not.’

 

It was a good call. Sam hated going to Hell.

He hated being there, especially the feelings it aroused in him and all the memories of the times he had spent there. Knowing that Auriel could be in there felt strange and bitter. She didn’t belong there, she was nothing like all the things that could be found there. She was  _light_ , she was _hope_ , she was everything that Hell wasn’t. Sam had this strange urge to be around her, to rescue her from that horrid place and make sure she was out of any possible danger - which was silly, really, because if she were to be found in a line of danger, she would, no doubt, be able to defend herself, but Sam had grown this protective feeling towards Auriel and as much as he tried to suppress it, there would always be a hint of it in the justification of his behaviour.

He’d never admit it, if someone asked.

 

 

Auriel had let the woman who served as her vessel be in control for a while, after she had popped back into the house with the infinite swimming pool, in the hopes that she would choose something to dress other than Dean’s shirt and a bathing suit underneath.

Now, she was back in control of the vessel, wearing something that felt more appropriate, combining dark denim jeans with a white blouse and shoes that laced up. She strolled down the somewhat busy street, taking in everything that surrounded her; Earth was so different from what she remembered, it was busier, with more grey and less green. The clouds above her were white as cotton against a canvas of a dull blue, a truly beautiful sight to enjoy, but also ephemeral. If they didn’t stop Lucifer soon, all of this would be gone, replaced with destruction and a permanent grey colour. Auriel sighed at the thought of a world like that.

 

She felt guilty for what had happened with the boys earlier; she had been tricked by her own mind, making her think it was all an illusion. It could have ended badly if it weren’t for Castiel. Auriel smiled at the thought of the other angel - she liked him. He seemed to be trustworthy, his Grace looked somewhat peaceful, showing some battle scars and traumas from the past, but nothing strange to Auriel herself. They all had battle scars.

 

It was a strange feeling to be free and to have all her abilities back – it was bittersweet. On one hand, she was free from her confines and able to explore this alluring planet with all its quirkiness, but on the other hand, she was alone and on a mission: to find the one who used to be her confident and lock him away. Gain his trust and then stab him in the back. Nothing he hadn’t done before.

_“Auriel, sweetheart, who cares about what Michael said,” Lucifer pleaded, treading behind her as she made her way through the hallway surrounded by white doors, “It’s a quick trip, they won’t even notice we were gone.”_

_She shook her head, looking ahead, “No. I don’t want to be in trouble.”_

_He feigned an offended look, “As if I would ever want to get you in trouble. Look,” he reached out for her arm, stopping her in the middle of the hallway and spun her around so that they were facing each other, her eyes lifted to watch his bright blue ones, “I’ll make sure no one knows about it.”_

_“You know they’ll find out,” she grumbled, “They always do.”_

_“I’ll cover for you! Come on, Auriel,” Lucifer was on the border of pleading, grabbing both her hands and tugging gently._

_Her answer was final, though, “I’m not going anywhere.”_

_She backed off, watching his face change into an enraged expression, his jaw tense and his eyes an icy blue. It scared her, but she didn’t let it show, instead turning her back on him and abandoning him in the hallway._

That had been the first evidence of what was to come, of _his betrayal_. Auriel pushed those memories out of her head and focused on the different faces around her. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack – Lucifer could be anywhere, in the most unpredictable of all places or in the most expected place of all. She had to gather herself and get in the right mindset for this mission; it was just like any other, another being she had to track down and keep away for the greater good. She couldn’t get stuck on the fact that it was _Lucifer_ the target of her mission.

Feeling more confident about the unexpected turn of events, Auriel twisted her wrist, her arm hanging at her side, expecting to feel the familiar weight of her blade on her hand, but being met with emptiness. Furrowing her brows, she repeated the action this time with more conviction, but got the same result.

She didn’t have her blade, her most trusted element of defence. Had she lost it? Forgotten it? Maybe someone stole it from her.

It couldn't have been any of those; Her blade was a fulcral part of her. It wasn't like other angel blades, it had a characteristic fiery glow and the runes carved in its handle granted Auriel, and only Auriel, the ability to use the blade in its full power. Basically, it was just dead weight when used by any other creature, so why take it away from her?

When the archangels made the decision - _well_ , Michael and Raphael made the decision of locking her in the Dome, they had taken away her mojo, making her powerless. The blade, _her blade_ , must have been taken away from her when they had locked her in that terrible room.

Auriel looked around frightened. Sure, she had her powers back, but her blade gave her the sense of confidence she needed to get through with this task. With the archangels dead and out of sight, she had no one to resort to.

Her mind was travelling through her memories, trying to locate any sign of it that she, in her confused state, could be ignoring, however she couldn't come up with any significant lead. She did remember what Sam had told her: they had gotten the summoning spell from the King of Hell. If the spell that freed her could be found in Hell, then maybe so would her blade. It was worth the risk.

 

 

‘She’s not in Hell, I can assure you,’ Crowley’s voice came through Dean’s phone sitting on top of the table with the speaker option on, ‘I just find it incredible how fast you can lose a powerful creature like an archangel!’

‘We didn’t lose her,’ Dean contradicted, folding his arms over his chest, ‘She ran off. Now, unless you’ve got anything helpful to say…’

‘Hold on squirrel, there’s no need to cut me off the adventure like that,’ the Winchesters collectively rolled their eyes at the King of Hell’s comment, Dean reaching towards his phone in order to hang up the call but stopping halfway, listening to Crowley’s words, ‘I’ve already sent a few of mine to look for her, since it’s rather important to keep her under our noses.’

 

That meant that if Crowley’s demons got to Auriel first, he’d take advantage of the opportunity and keep her away from the brothers, probably already with a new plan in mind, one that appealed to his interests, instead of the general population’s.

It was a no go for Sam. They had to be the first to find Auriel and bring her back to the Bunker in order to work out a strategy.

 

‘Alright Crowley, if your demons find anything related to Auriel, you better call us.’ Dean stated, squinting his eyes as he waited for Crowley’s reply. The other end of the line died before they got any answers. ‘Son of a bitch,’ Dean muttered, picking up his phone from the table.

‘We all agree that we have to find her first, right?’ Sam spoke up, looking at Dean and Castiel for support.

‘Yes,’ they answered in unison, turning towards one another with a confused face at the simultaneous answer.

‘Good,’ Sam sat up and walked past the two men who were still stuck in a resemblance of a staring contest, heading towards his bedroom to pick up his duffel bag, always packed and ready to go at any given moment.

When he returned to the war room, Castiel and Dean were out of their daze and readying themselves to leave the Bunker and hit the road to find Auriel.

 

To Sam, it seemed like a vain effort trying to find a celestial being with teleportation abilities in this vast country – _what if she isn’t even in this country anymore?_ But something in Sam’s mind wouldn’t let him quit or just leave it to Crowley’s demons to find her. He wanted to say it was because she was a crucial part of their plan to get Lucifer in the Cage and that’s why he was willing to spend all the amount of time that would be necessary to find her, but that wasn’t the only reason. There was something within him that seemed to call out for her, that manifested itself when she was near, something that could definitely help them find Auriel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a glimpse of Auriel's backstory and her relationship with Lucifer and the other archangels. It might seem a bit confusing now, but I assure you that if you stick with me and be patient, everything will be explained!
> 
> I hope you like it so far, thank you for reading it!


	4. Chapter 4

Sam was startled from his concentration on his laptop screen when Dean threw a folded newspaper on top of his keyboard. He watched his brother set their breakfast on top of the small motel table and taking a seat in front of him. Since Sam’s focus had already gone out the window, he lowered his laptop screen, picked up the newspaper and reached for the bag that Dean had pushed in his direction, that contained a breakfast sandwich and a bagel. His eyes examined the page that Dean had left the newspaper in, trying to find whatever it was that his brother wanted him to see.  
‘You see that?’ Dean spoke in between bites, ‘A body was found dead with several cuts on its torso, but no signs of blood.’  
Sam continued to read through the small article, listening to his brother intently, ‘What are you thinking?’  
‘Check the weather reports,’ Dean pointed. 

Squinting his eyes at the several news articles, Sam zoomed in on the one he assumed Dean was referring to, ‘ _”Bizarre lighting storms seem to be behind several cattle deaths”_ …’  
‘That’s a two for one, right there,’ the older Winchester pointed out, leaning back against the uncomfortable motel chair, ‘Maybe it was Crowley’s demons trying to get intel on Auriel.’  
It was a state over the one they had spent the night at. If the demons were on the right track to find Auriel, so were they.  
‘Wanna check it out?’ Sam questioned, setting the newspaper down and opening his bag, scooping out his sandwich.  
‘It’s still a freaky death, it could be a case,’ Dean noted, ‘Not to mention that it can lead us to your _favorite_ _halo_.’  
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, ‘Anyway,’ he changed the subject, trying his best to ignore the stupid smirk that had appeared on Dean’s face, ‘We better get going or else we’ll fall behind. Any news from Cass?’  
The other hunter shook his head, balling up his sandwich wrapper and throwing it at Sam, ‘He says he’s investigating, but that’s about it. No news from Crowley either. That bastard better not stab us in the back.’  
‘Are we talking about the same Crowley? Because I’m sure he would be the first one to double-cross us.’  
‘If he does,’ Dean spoke calmly, his tone showing fake kindness, ‘It’s only going to come back and bite him in the ass.’ 

Sam snorted, picking up the wrapper that Dean had thrown at him and finished his breakfast.  Outside, the motel’s parking lot was close to empty, only the Impala was parked in front of their room door and other two cars that belonged to a man in a suit and a woman that had arrived late last night, both sprinting towards a room. The sun was shining and the day seemed to be promising; With a hint of luck, they would get to the place where the murder had taken place by the end of the day.  
He stood up and stretched his legs, a much-needed action after spending as long as he had with his legs crammed under the small table, heading for his duffel bag sitting at the end of his bed to scoop out his toothbrush.  
‘Does it bother you?’ Dean inquired, haphazardly folding his shirt, and setting it on his own duffel bag.  
Sam did not know what his brother was referring to, giving him a confused look as he walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open to hear what Dean had to say.  
‘That she saw you as Lucifer.’

 _Did it?  
_ Sam had tried to let go of that memory and not focus on the fact that Auriel had mistaken him for Lucifer, but now that Dean had brought it up, he couldn’t help but feel a pang on his stomach. He didn’t want to be associated with _evil_ or anything remotely related to Hell. He didn’t want people – or creatures – to look at him and think of Lucifer, or anyone else; Sam was Sam. That’s it. That’s what people should think about when they saw him. He was a hunter, nothing else. 

‘It’d bother me, too,’ Dean kept talking, since Sam didn’t provide him an answer, ‘But, Sammy, you know that’s not true, right?’  
_Wasn’t it?_  
‘You know you can choose… Just like you’ve done before. It’s not a part of you, alright? You’re not related in any way to him.’  
Sam took a deep breath and carried on with brushing his teeth, pushing away the thoughts that were trying to invade his mind.

* * *

 

Earth was completely different. It was harder to navigate through it, with all the crowded spaces, cars and busy people with their heads in their gadgets. Auriel was struggling to find a space that didn’t have any humans nearby; No matter what place she thought of from her previous times on Earth, when she got to the destination in mind, she always ended up in some place filled with people. That wouldn’t do for what she needed – she had to find an empty place in order to retrieve her blade from Hell. Or at least, look for it in there.  
A long time ago, when she had been assigned the task to guard the keys to the gates of Hell, it was much easier to find a secluded place and work her magic in case she needed to pay a visit to the treacherous place or if she had to accompany someone else. Now, it seemed nearly impossible – even the forest seemed to be a guarded place, judging from the two men dressed in green uniforms Auriel had spotted in a tower in the middle of the woods. She was running out of ideas and out of time.  
She stopped and took a seat in a public bench, organizing her mind and clearing out her thoughts. One pushed past the barrier she was trying to form in her head and played out like a movie scene. 

 _“Where’s Lucifer? I haven’t seen him in a while…” it wasn’t the first time Auriel asked about the whereabouts of the archangel and she suspected that, like the other times before, she wouldn’t get a proper answer._  
_“You won’t be seeing him for a very long time, sweetie,” Gabriel had replied, patting her cheek affectionately and giving her a warm smile._  
_She sighed. Auriel missed his company and she missed talking to him; Had he left without telling her? Was he not coming back?_  
_“Hey, no pouting. If Raphael saw that, I’m sure he would make you patrol the halls again,” Gabe teased, the smile still hanging from his lips._  
_Auriel rolled her eyes and insisted on the subject, “Gabe,” he made a sound of acknowledgement, “Why won’t you tell me where he is? I’ve asked Michael, but he didn’t answer me… He just told me to focus on the runes. I suppose I’ll have to turn to Raphael, though I doubt I’ll be getting any answers from him.”_  
_“You can always try,” Gabriel replied with a mocking grin that made her smack his arm in frustration._  
_“Come on, Gabe. Tell me.”_  
_“First of all, little one, you don’t get to demand anything from me. Second of all, maybe we’re not telling you, because you don’t need to know,” he paused, searching her eyes and poking the tip of her nose, “So, move along and no more questions.”_  
_“You’re better than that, Gabriel.” Auriel told him, pretending to be hurt by him not briefing her in on the situation. The taller angel was looking at her with what seemed to be sorrow in his eyes when Michael appeared next to them, his Grace pulsing with rage. He addressed Gabriel, almost as if he hadn’t seen Auriel standing there, speaking in hushed but quick words, “He’s here, in the Garden.”_  
_Gabriel looked at his brother, assessing the situation, “How?”_  
_“Gadreel.”  
_ _Without further ado, Auriel was left alone in the wide-open room, more confused than before._

Auriel focused on the fountain in front of her. She had to focus on controlling her thoughts better; she couldn’t allow her mind to be assaulted by these random memories all the time. _Had Raphael taught her nothing?_  
She _could_ go back to the Winchesters’ place and open a passageway from there – it wasn’t a crowded place and if the brothers knew the King of Hell, they sure wouldn’t be shocked by the fact that she wanted to go there. _Well_ , she could talk to Crowley himself and he’d lead her to one of the existent gates. It seemed to be a wise solution, so back to that place it was. She stood up, ready to get out of the plaza, away from the humans and the havoc, but she stopped when she felt a strange presence in her surroundings. _Smoke_. _Dark auras_. _Oh no_.  
Auriel eyed her surroundings trying to find the source of the bad energy. They weren’t as near as she thought, still a few blocks away, but now that she had noticed them, why not pay them a little visit?  
She marched fiercely in their direction, something inside her slipping back into a comfortable state; one that she knew and was familiar with – the vindictive side of her. As she got closer, she was able to recognize that they were in fact demons – crossroads demons. _What a piece of cake_.  
‘Look who it is,’ the demon in a men’s vessel taunted, as they watched Auriel approach them.  
‘ _Daddy’s_ dearest creature in creation!’ the teenage girl sing sang, her eyes flashing red as she did so.  
‘Where is he,’ Auriel demanded, keeping her voice level and her face blank.  
‘Should we tell her?’ the teenager asked the middle-aged man next to her, arousing a laugh from him, ‘Let’s not spoil all the fun!’  
‘I thought so, too,’ Auriel’s voice cut through the air before she snapped her fingers, causing both demons to smoke up into nothing as their vessels blew up – a true gruesome sight not gone unnoticed by the passers-by. 

She hated not being able to let the vessels walk freely, it wasn’t their fault that a low life demon had snuck up on them, since they didn’t need their consent, but her hatred for those nasty creatures was bigger and surpassed her tendency to spare the humans. By now, people were starting to gather around her, looking horrified with their hands covering their mouths, some of them sickened by the scenario in the middle of the street, so Auriel found it best to just get out of there and follow her earlier plan: go back to the Winchesters’.  
Of course, they didn’t know where Lucifer was. They were his creations, but they were so afraid of him, of his powers, unlike her: she wasn’t scared of him, she didn’t fear his proximity, yet he still chose them over her. _Daddy’s dearest creature in creation_.

* * *

 

‘Got anything?’ Dean asked, leaning against Baby’s hood, waiting for Sam to cross the street to join him.  
They had arrived at the crime scene late in the afternoon, put on their FBI suits and started investigating – Dean going to speak with the police crew and Sam with the deceased’s husband.  
The taller Winchester shook his head, stopping in front of his brother, ‘The usual. He said he was very devoted and that he had even signed up for a biblical studies’ course. That night they had a meeting with their church group, everything was going as per usual and when he offered to go get the car to drive home, Theo came back to find David’s body torn apart in the sidewalk, minus the blood.’  
‘Angel possession?’ Dean’s hunch was confirmed by his brother’s nod as he got in the driver’s seat, ‘So, what killed him?’  
Sam closed the passenger’s door, looking at the dark sky through the windshield, ‘Maybe it was Crowley’s…’  
‘Crowley’s demons,’ a raspy voice joined Sam’s speech, startling the brothers as a new presence joined them on the backseat of the Impala, ‘Yes, you’re right. Worry not, lads, your _friend_ has happily returned the favour,’ Crowley’s voice rose in tone as he spoke, looking at Sam and Dean.  
‘Get straight to the point, we don’t have all day,’ Dean spoke, rolling his eyes at the King of Hell’s over-dramatic reaction.  
‘The _bikini babe_ has effectively murdered my demons. She put on a show for everyone to see and is now joining yourselves on the list of America’s most wanted.’  
‘What?’  
‘Come on, moose! Stop thinking with your antlers and use your brain,’ Crowley snapped, turning to Sam, ‘You unleashed something that’s worse than Lucifer himself! At least he didn’t start by crossing all our names off the list, now she… She’s coming for my demons and she’ll come for me.’  
‘All right, listen,’ Sam intervened, holding his hands up, ‘Don’t forget _you_ gave us the spell and she’s not going to start killing off demons.’  
‘Wouldn’t hurt if she did,’ Dean murmured to himself.  
‘They must have done something to deserve it,’ Sam concluded.  
‘They tracked her down, that’s what they did to deserve it!’ Crowley snapped, ‘Now she's off to who knows where.’  
‘That means we lost her, again?’ Dean sighed, setting his hands on the steering wheel.  
‘That is your bloody problem, deal with it, lads.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a short chapter.... the next ones will be longer, I promise!


	5. Chapter 5

The house was empty when Auriel entered, nor Sam or Dean seemed to be there, let alone Crowley. At least she had found a space where she could be without all those eyes staring at her like she was some sort of a freak. She didn’t like being under the magnifying glass; it felt like she was some scientific experiment, her every move being analysed and criticized – because Auriel _never did something right_.

She huffed out a breath, walking around aimlessly through the halls, exploring the place where the hunters lived. Nearly every door she opened were bedrooms, all of them similar in their decoration, except for two, which she assumed were Sam and Dean’s rooms. She could stay here and they wouldn’t even notice her presence ( _hide_ , she could hide hide herself here). After opening countless doors, Auriel reached the entrance to the dungeon where she had appeared after the Winchesters had summoned her.

Endless questions still haunted her about that moment. One minute she was sitting in the Dome’s floor, going mad with the silence’s loudness and her inner demons, the next she was struggling against this very own concrete floor, not used to being confined in a vessel and having to control her powers. How could they, mere humans, free her with something as simple as a summoning spell? Well, no one had ever tried to free her before, because no one really knew of her existence and the ones who did weren’t going to change their decision, so she didn’t know what it took to free her. Perhaps it was _that_ simple.

Now, the fact that it was a spell that had come from Hell, alluded that it could have been Lucifer himself to create it – who else could it be?

She eyed the red ink on the floor, forming a devil’s trap; _How ironic_ that her, an archangel, had appeared in the middle of it. Would _he_ get stuck in it? No, he was still an angel, still needed the individual’s approval to possess them. Auriel snapped her fingers and in front of her appeared Lucifer, standing in the middle of the trap, his eyes on hers like a predator spying his prey. He had the same icy smirk, the same confidence and authority surrounding his form. She was enthralled by his presence, everything in her being calling out for him, spurring her on to reach out her hand and touch him. She was so close…

 

‘Auriel!’

Startled, Auriel turned to find the source of the voice calling out her name. It was the angel, Castiel, who was standing outside the doorway that lead into the dungeon, his eyes wide with bewilderment and his arm raised pointing at the now vacant space in front of her. She turned her body fully to face Castiel as she silently watched his face change, confusion clear in his eyes.

‘Where did he go?’ he asked, his voice deep and reverberating off the room’s walls.

‘I don’t know,’ Auriel answered truthfully.

 

Castiel was even more confused, stepping into the room and walking past Auriel to inspect the spot Lucifer had just been. ‘You let him go?’

‘It wasn’t real, Castiel,’ she told him, spinning around to face him again, ‘Though I can’t say I’m not proud you thought it was indeed him.’

Castiel tilted his head to the side, not understanding what she was telling him. Lucifer had been there, he had seen him and now Auriel was saying it wasn’t real?

‘An echo,’ Auriel spoke softly, crossing her arms in front of her chest, ‘Props to Gabe. I was never very good at it, next to nothing compared to his creations, but I must say, this one wasn’t _half_ bad.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I can create echoes of memories out of thin air, that’s what it was. Not Lucifer on the flesh, just a product from my memories,’ she explained, watching Castiel’s posture relax as he took in what she was telling him, ‘Gabriel could create these elaborate scenarios with endless details from the ground up, but I was never very gifted in the art of creating… I’ve always tended towards destroying.’

‘That is impressive,’ Castiel commented.

 

She nodded, offering him a smile, ‘Were you looking for Sam and Dean?’

‘No,’ Cass was still trying to grasp what the archangel had told him, taking longer to answer than what he normally would.

Auriel waited for him to continue, but the silence was stretching out and Cass was still looking at her without proffering any other words. She uncrossed her arms, ‘Were you looking for me?’

He mulled it over for a second, ‘No.’

‘Not much for small talk, are we?’ she noted with her brows raised at the angel who squinted his eyes at her.

‘Why do you want to know what I came here for?’

‘I don’t want to know,’ Auriel replied, ‘I was hoping you’d tell me where they are.’

‘They’re looking for you,’ Castiel said, ‘We were all looking for you.’

‘Why would you be looking for me?’ she felt weird knowing that they were after her. She didn’t need anyone else following her around.

‘Because they want you to work with them, not alone,’ he paused, looking away from her eyes, ‘They think you’ll fail.’

 

Of course they did. ‘Oh, what? They think they’ll do a better job at tracking down Lucifer and lock him up?’ she voiced her frustrations, spitting the words into the air as she moved around the room, ‘They sure did a great job at finding _me_. If they do find him, he’ll snap their necks in a split second.’

He’d snap _Dean’s_ neck, that’s granted – Sam’s neck, she wasn’t sure.

‘They were getting close to you, until you disappeared again after killing those demons,’ Castiel offered, growing impatient by her restlessness, ‘Sam. He prayed to you.’

She stopped her pacing and looked at Castiel’s back, ‘He what?’

‘He prayed to you,’ he repeated, facing Auriel, ‘He told me that you didn’t comply to his prayers, so he thought you were ignoring him, but I don’t think that’s the case.’

Auriel barely shook her head to answer the angel’s observation, realizing how _pathetic_ she looked. She straightened up before speaking in the most impartial tone she could muster up, ‘I don’t listen to prayers or angel conversations and the whatnots that go on between the angels.’

 

Castiel didn’t react, he was already predicting it. He inhaled deeply before scooping out his phone from his pocket and quickly texting Dean, informing him that Auriel was in the Bunker (he added an emoji at the end, not wanting to sound too formal). She was still standing in front of him, watching his actions with her arms crossed in front of her chest again, but she seemed to be deeply lost in her own thoughts, her eyes looking blank. With a click of her tongue, she focused back on reality, ‘Now that you’ve told them I’m here, you can tell me where the King of Hell is.’

‘Why do you want to know?’ Castiel peered his eyes at her, curious to know what was it that she had to do with Crowley.

‘I want him to take me to Hell.’

Cass continued to stare at her, not knowing what to respond to that. Was she expecting to find Lucifer _there_? Had she not realized that they had already made sure of that?

‘Or perhaps _you_ could tell me.’

‘I’m not going to take you to Hell.’

‘Not that,’ Auriel rolled her eyes as if Castiel’s statement made absolutely no sense, ‘I’m looking for something.’

 

_“Auriel!” Michael called out over his shoulder, not losing his focus on what he was doing. When she didn’t respond, he set down the object and looked up, sighing in frustration before repeating, “Auriel.”_

_After a second too long, the girl strode in his direction, a silly smile plastered on her face that quickly vanished as she took in Michael’s expression._

_“If I call, you respond,” he spoke, standing up to his full height, “Are we clear?”_

_She cast her eyes down, feeling embarrassed at his scolding, “Yes.”_

_“Look at me. Always keep your chin up,” Michael urged and watched as she obeyed, a wave of pride washing over him, “I have something for you.”_

_Auriel’s eyes lit up as Michael picked up the object he had been working on before calling her. It was a silver blade – a beautiful blade with a fiery glow to it and a series of runes engraved in its handle that shined bright before blending in with the silver, turning almost imperceptible. Her mouth was slightly parted in admiration as she took in the blade that Michael was holding in his outstretched hands._

_“Is that for me?”_

_“Yes,” Michael answered with a smirk, rejoicing in her reaction. He had worked very hard on that blade, making it perfect for her in every way possible, and now, seeing her reaction to it, was a better reward than any other. “Pay attention to the runes, they withhold a lot of power.”_

_He trusted her to know how to handle it, but she could be a wind head sometimes, getting distracted at the most mundane things or not focusing herself entirely. Of course, as the time passed, him and his brothers would fix that and turn her into what she was created to be: Heaven’s greatest warrior._

_She reached out for it, but he held it out of her grasp, receiving an outraged look from Auriel, “I thought I could keep it.”_

_“You will keep it,” Michael informed her, “As soon as you’re familiar with it.”_

_“How will I do that if I don’t have it?”_

_He raised his brows at her answer: she knew better than to argue with him. It was one thing to do it with Gabriel, but he wouldn’t have any of her sass. “You will do as I say,” he reminded her of his earlier warning._

_She huffed out a breath, looking away from him, unable to hide her exasperation. Michael was so strict, always imposing his orders on her and god forbid if she ever disrespected him; he believed himself to be up on a pedestal and that she was his minion, even though that was far from the truth. Auriel still loved Michael to death, but these little things were starting to seriously irritate her. Closing her eyes to focus back on what mattered, she remembered the gorgeous blade that Michael was still holding and how it would be hers once she learned how to control it properly – which shouldn’t take long._

They had moved to the kitchen of the Bunker (Auriel had asked Castiel about the place in their journey towards the new area and he had informed her that it was the Men of Letter’s Bunker, Sam and Dean being legacies) where Auriel was now rummaging the cabinets, trying to find something to distract her whilst Castiel took a seat in the island’s stool.

‘What is this thing you’re looking for?’ Castiel inquired.

‘My blade,’ Auriel sighed, still looking through the cabinets, ‘I have a feeling it’s in Hell, so I wanted Crowley to tell me if there’s an existing gate or if I have to open one. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a deserted place around here,’ she goggled her eyes at him, emphasizing her statement.

‘I would know, actually,’ Cass looked around the kitchen before settling his eyes on Auriel’s back, ‘There is one gate, but I don’t think it is wise for you to go there on your own.’

‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Auriel turned to look at the angel, a tip of a rainbow gummy trapped between her lips, ‘That’s more _my_ domain than theirs – any of them, in fact.’

Cass squinted his eyes at her, stunned by her acclaims, ‘You and Lucifer…’

She stopped sucking on the bitter sugar to focus entirely on Castiel, waiting for his words to come out, for him to eventually realize the obvious.

‘What binds you together?’

 

 _So close_.

‘He was one of the four that created me…’

‘Why are you both so deeply linked to Hell if you’re archangels from Heaven?’ Cass insisted, ignoring Auriel’s answer. He knew that, she had already mentioned it, now it was time to get answers to the many loopholes in her backstory.

Auriel bit the end of the gummy, holding the remaining part between her fingers, chewing it slowly as she thought of a proper answer. There was no point in running away; lying to humans was one thing, they were so _deceivable_ , but Castiel was an angel, lying would only add up to his suspicions and Auriel wanted him as an ally, not as an enemy.

‘Your observations are correct, but it’s not as simple as that,’ she finished her gummy, licking the sugar off the tips of her fingers, ‘You know Lucifer’s story, you know all about him. Me, on the other hand, I was a well-kept secret. My story is far more complicated, but bottom line is we’re both archangels connected to Hell. Lucifer, because he created it. Me, because he asked.’

She snapped her fingers, transporting them into the inside of one of her memories, watching on as it played out.

 

_“This is ridiculous, I don’t need to be babysat,” Auriel grunted as she walked behind Raphael through the meadow._

_“If you complained a little less, I would appreciate it,” Raphael spoke calmly, looking ahead._

_She rolled her eyes at the archangel. Auriel had been delegated a task on Earth – her first one since she was banned from the planet – but the older archangels decided she should be chaperoned by at least one of them. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just go alone; it was a fairly simple task that she could handle just fine without anyone to observe her._

_Although, she couldn’t say she wasn’t excited to be back on earth. Hearing the crisp grass crunching beneath her feet and feeling the beams of sunlight on her skin felt amazing, something she had missed during her ban, but that she could now try to enjoy as much as she could._

_“We both know I can do this on my own,” she said dismissively, watching the blue skies above, “You’re just wasting your time.”_

_Raphael stopped walking and turned to look at her, pursing his lips when she immediately straightened her back and clasped her hands in front of her, “We’re both capable of many things, but, unlike you, I’m not an easy target.”_

_Auriel pondered his words silently, feeling an uncharacteristic coldness travelling down her arms right before Raphael had fallen to the ground in front of her. She ignored her instinct to drop down and check if he was okay, frantically looking around the seemingly empty meadow._

_“Boo,” a voice sounded next to her ear, making her jump in surprise. It was Lucifer, standing right behind her, staring her down with those icy blue eyes._

_“Lucifer?” her initial shock at his presence was replaced with anger, “Where have you been? What did you do to Raphael?”_

_“Relax, he’s fine,” he dismissed her concerns, “I just stunned him.”_

_“That’s wrong!” Auriel pointed her finger at Lucifer’s chest, outraged by his actions, “We mustn’t attack someone when they are not facing us.”_

_“What happened to you? Getting all righteous on me, little miss perfect?”_

_Auriel frowned, exhaling deeply before crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from his eyes._

_“Now, as to your other question, my brothers didn’t tell you?” though his tone was mocking, it had a serious edge to it. After she didn’t reply, instead relaxing her crossed arms and widening her eyes, Lucifer continued, “I guess it’s easier to make you think that I left, isn’t it?” he let out a laugh void of any humour that made Auriel shiver, reaching out a hand to touch her cheek, gently caressing it, “Well, I didn’t leave. They threw me out.”_

_“Why?” her voice was barely audible, sounding so small in the open area._

_“I heard you got a new toy,” Lucifer swerved away from her question, dropping his hand from her face, smirking._

_“I don’t have it, yet,” Auriel corrected him, uncrossing her arms, and staring up at Lucifer. He looked different, renewed – the blue in his eyes didn’t shine so brightly, in fact, there was an odd glow to them that Auriel couldn’t name._

_He shook his head, scoffing at the ground, “Good ol’ Michael. Nice to know he hasn’t changed.”_

_She was growing tired of this conversation. It didn’t feel right – Lucifer didn’t sound the same, Raphael was still unconscious on the ground and she had a task to complete. “I should go,” she turned her back on him, but was stopped when his hand grasped her wrist, turning her back around._

_“Come with me, Auriel. I have great plans for you, nothing like these silly little errands they got you doing. Something grand.”_

_“What are you talking about?” she thought he was insane and desperately tried to figure out a way to escape, but found that his grip wouldn’t allow her to run away._

_“You can be my right arm in this funny little place called Hell,” he grinned at her, “You’re more than capable for the task. What do you say, Auriel?”_

_She eyed him suspiciously, withdrawing her wrist from his grasp, wishing that Raphael would wake up and take her away, but that didn’t seem like it would happen unless Lucifer wanted to, so it was time for her last resort: getting Gabriel’s attention, letting him know what was happening and hoping that he would tell Michael and both would come to her rescue._

_“You don’t trust me?” Lucifer smiled, knowing what she had just done, “I’ll be back for an answer.”_

_With that he was gone, vanishing into thin air and leaving behind Auriel and Raphael, who was starting to stir awake from his unconscious state, soon being joined by Michael and Gabriel, armed with their respective angel blades._

Auriel brought them back to the Bunker’s kitchen, waiting a reaction from Castiel. He looked confused at what he had just seen, staring at Auriel from the other side of the kitchen island.

‘What did he offer you?’

‘The key to Hell,’ she replied serenely.

Cass tilted his head to the side, asking, ‘You accepted it?’

‘What do you think?’ she mused, ‘Of course, I didn’t realize the true meaning of what I had accepted and I eventually payed for it. But enough of that, we should focus on retrieving my blade. Without it, I won’t be able to do much to help you… and all the humans that inhabit this planet,’ Auriel paused, looking around them, her expression growing serious, ‘You know, Cass, I’m not sure I can do it. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I face him again, it can all go wrong.’

He listened as she ranted, understanding her fear, and starting to understand better _who_ Auriel was. She belonged to Heaven, but a part of her resided in Hell – she was almost like a reflection of Lucifer and Castiel was yet to find out if that would play in their favour or against them. Auriel was living between good and evil and that line was not a great place to live.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam adjusted the radio volume for what felt like the hundredth time to try to cover up the deep silence that stretched on since they had left the Bunker, nearly two hours ago. He sighed, returning both hands to the steering wheel of the black AMC matador he had found parked in the back on the Bunker’s garage, his eyes focusing on the road in front of him, completely empty except for the occasional car that passed by them in the opposite lane – maybe he couldn’t see any car near them, because he might have been stretching the speed limit, but the purr of the car’s engine and the music coming out of the speakers helped masking the awkward silence, though Sam wanted nothing more than to turn the radio off. The only station that he could find kept playing _disco music_ and two hours of that was more than enough for him.

Auriel didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking, given her position beside him, with her head leaned against the window and her eyes running over the landscape outside. It had been a week since she had come back to the Bunker and they had _insisted_ she stayed with them, always briefing at least either one of the brothers or Castiel in case she wanted to go somewhere. Sam understood that what they were doing might be a _tad bit_ extreme, but he didn’t want to lose sight of her again and it was more than a valid excuse for him to accompany her everywhere she went, getting to know her little by little and, who knows, form some sort of a relationship with her that went past the “acquaintance” mark.  So far, she had shared little to no information on her personal story, but Sam liked to think she was growing accustomed to _him_ – Sam and only Sam, not associating him, or at least not showing signs of it, to Lucifer – relying on the way they had shared a few jokes and how she seemed to prefer his company over Dean’s.

They were heading towards another state to inspect the few clues they had gotten of the whereabouts of her blade from a week of intensive research and coercive interrogation. Sam had a hunch that this trip wouldn’t go to waste – unlike the other two they had previously made – but Auriel didn’t seem as excited as him about being one step closer to getting back what was rightfully hers. She didn’t show any type of emotion, to be exact. Her face was blank, watching the greenery, her lips parted slightly… A vibration in Sam’s pocket brought him back to reality and he struggled to scoop out his phone, having to press a little further on the accelerator to stretch his leg and reach into his pocket. Luckily, the road was still empty.

 

‘Hey Dean, what’s up?’

_“We just got back from talking with the deputy and Sam, I’ll have you know, I sure am in the south.”_

Sam snorted softly, ‘Glad to hear that you still know your way around.’

_“And what’s that supposed to mean? Mind you, I know the roads of this country like the back of my hand.”_

‘It’s just that you’re getting old and you know, with age your memory will start…’

_“Oh shut up… You’re the one who seems lost, still not there yet?”_

‘We’re about halfway through, I’m not lost, jerk.’

_“Bitch. How’s our house guest doing?”_

‘Um… fine, everything’s fine over here.’

 _“All right, I bet she’s thrilled to be stuck in a car with you, two of her favourite things!_ ”

Sam heard his brother laughing at the other end of the line and rolled his eyes at the comment.

_“Hey, Cass is back so we’re gonna head out to the hospital and check on the victims. I’ll text you later.”_

 

Sam said goodbye to his brother and hung up, setting his phone between his legs since it was too much trouble to put it back in its original place. Auriel had changed her position, straightening up when she felt Sam struggling next to her before answering his phone, making her squint her eyes at his reckless behaviour. She remained looking at him after he ended the phone call, prodding him to share the news or just talk to her – she was starting to get bored of the landscape and growing impatient by the time it was taking them to get there. If Sam hadn’t been a pain and just let her _snap_ her fingers, they could be returning home with her blade in her hands, unharmed.  

 

‘That was Dean,’ Sam spoke, focused on the road, dropping his left hand to rest on his thigh.

‘I gathered from the “Dean, what’s up”,’ Auriel pointed out, showing that she had been listening to the conversation.

‘He didn’t say much, but they haven’t checked out the hospital yet.’

Auriel nodded turning to watch the road as well. Sam didn’t want the conversation to die down, so his brain started frantically searching for conversational topics, a far from easy task when you’re dealing with an angel – sure, conversations with Auriel flowed much easier than the ones with Castiel, but only if you had the right topic, not an easy thing when you share such little things in common with the being next to you. He reached out and turned the radio off; the constant disco tunes weren’t helping him think properly and as he did so, Auriel let out a sigh next to him, mumbling a very quiet, ‘Finally.’

Sam furrowed his eyebrows at her reaction, 'You don’t like it? The music?’

'I like music, just not that kind of music.’

Sam pursed his lips, making notes of what Auriel was saying, 'It was the only station I could find, everything else is just static.’

'It’s fine,’ she turned to him, 'I prefer talking to you over listening to the combination of notes coming from the holes in the vehicle. But, in all seriousness, Sam, could you go a little faster? I’m pretty close to flying my way out of here.’

'I’m going pretty fast already. We’ll get there, don’t worry,’ Sam had to put on his best poker face to not show how Auriel’s words had affected him. A weird feeling of pride washed over him and he stepped on the pedal a little further, stretching out the car's limit.

'When I used to come here, there were no cars or roads, it was all green and pure,’ Auriel commented, leaning her head back and allowing her eyes to loom over the forest outside, a mere blur of green and brown.

'Why’d you stop visiting?’

She pondered an answer, assessing whether she could trust Sam, 'I stopped because I was deprived of everything I had. My powers, my friends, my freedom, …’

A notification came through Sam’s phone, causing Auriel to interrupt her speech, trying to find the source of the noise and reaching out to grab the phone from the space between Sam’s thighs, making his mind go blank for a split second and the car to swerve out of the lane.

'Eyes on the road. Need I remind you I’m not the one who’s going to suffer if something happens?’ Auriel shook her head at Sam, watching as he placed both hands on the wheel and letting out a shaky breath.

 

She turned her attention to the gadget in her hands, trying to figure out how to make something out of it; pressing the buttons on its side proved to be useful, making the phone light up - now came the easy part: following the instructions on the screen, telling her to “swipe”, which she did, successfully revealing a message from Dean and coaxing a triumphant smile out of the archangel.

'It’s your brother,’ she informed, reading the text on the screen, 'They just got out of the hospital and according to Castiel, the victims don’t have their soul.’

'Soulless?’ Sam gave her a brief look, thrown off by the progress in the case that Dean and Cass were investigating. When Dean had come across it, their first guess had been a djinn, but the new information didn’t add up to a djinn’s typical behaviour.

'Looks like it,’ Auriel set the phone in her lap, turning towards Sam, ‘What do you think it could be?’

‘I don’t know… maybe it’s a demon collecting souls, who knows what it could be.’

 

Auriel tilted her head at his answer; it could be a demon, but it could be plenty of other things. Either way, Cass and Dean would figure it out and deal with it. The Winchesters were great hunters, making a few (grand) mistakes here and there, but most people seemed to _idolize_ them, if not, fear them. She had watched them interrogate a few demons, hunters and regular people during the past few days, impressed by their persuasion and ability to twist them in the right way to get what they wanted. She couldn’t help but feel grateful to have them helping her find what seemed like such an unimportant item, but that meant so much to her and complemented her, allowing Auriel to achieve great things. For now, she was stuck with a regular angel blade Dean had handed her, saying it was a _“spare one we had in Baby’s trunk”_ – why did they have an angel blade, Auriel didn’t want to know, let alone knowing why they had _multiple_ blades.

She realized she had started to tell Sam about her past, but decided to leave it at that. There was no need to make herself more vulnerable by giving them information about her.

‘How far away are we?’ she asked.

‘About half an hour to go.’

Auriel let out a deep breath, rolling her eyes at the window next to her, ‘Tell me about your hunting adventures, Samuel.’

 

* * *

 

 

The two tall men strolled through the hospital’s corridors, one of them dressed in a classic navy blue suit and the other sporting the usual beige trench coat. They headed towards the exit, spotting a van parked outside the parking lot selling tacos and making their way towards the queue. Dean put his phone away, shoving his hands in his pockets while he waited for his turn and eyeing the several choices available. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t stop thinking about the victims and Cass saying they were soulless. They could cross the djinn off the list. But now there was nothing to go on, no typical behaviours to look for, no signs specifying whether it was this or that they were dealing with.

When it was finally his turn, Dean ordered the taco he had set his mind on and both men hoped onto the top of the brick fence next to the van.

‘We should go talk to the victims again,’ Cass spoke, watching Dean biting down on his food.

‘Well,’ Dean paused to swallow the taco, ‘He haven’t talked to them, yet. Spying them through a window doesn’t count as talking, Cass.’

‘I know, Dean, but I wanted you to get the point.’

‘Don’t worry, I got it,’ Dean felt Castiel’s thigh bump into his, making him jump alarmed, ‘Unlike you and the concept of personal space.’

Castiel looked down, realizing what Dean meant and moved a couple of inches away, giving the hunter his so much needed “personal space”. He wanted to talk to the victims as soon as they could, because this wasn’t your typical demon situation. When someone exchanged their soul in return for a favour, they normally didn’t end up in a hospital bed blubbering pieces of poorly formed sentences. Castiel might be new to the whole hunting thing, but he knew that the victims’ reports were usually more trustworthy than the deputy’s. They were told by the local police that this was a “typical outbreak of flu”, but that wouldn’t take away a person’s soul.

 

‘Alright, let’s get back inside and figure out what this creature is before anyone else gets hurt,’ Dean hopped off the wall and motioned for Castiel to follow him back inside the hospital, where they took the lift up to the floor where the victims were. As they approached the nurses’ station, badges in hand, two nurses conducted a stretcher with a new patient towards the room that they called the _Quarantine zone_ , to join the other presumably infected. A woman with a shocked expression followed the nurses and stopped by the window that Cas and Dean had previously used to check out the vics.

‘Excuse me,’ Dean stepped forward, trying to get the woman’s attention. When she turned to them the hunter showed his badge, introducing himself, mimicked by the angel who smiled proudly when he noticed his identification wasn’t upside down. ‘We’re investigating this sudden epidemic and we were hoping we could ask you a few questions about what we assume to be…’

‘My son,’ the woman cut off Dean’s speech, sniffling, ‘I didn’t know the FBI had an interest in things like these, but this is no epidemic. My son was perfectly fine when we left the house just half an hour ago. We were going to buy new seeds for Dan to plant… He loves gardening, my sweet Daniel,’ she broke down crying, clinging to the paper tissue she was holding in her hands.

‘I’m sorry, Mrs…’

‘Linda Griffin.’

‘Listen, Mrs. Griffin, your son will be okay. You just need to tell us exactly what happened, can you do that?’

Mrs. Griffin nodded and looked back at her son through the window, ‘We were on our way to the store and we decided to walk, since it’s such a beautiful day today, don’t you agree, agents? We might have walked for about 10 minutes, before everything started getting cold and dark… we could see our breaths like in those cold winter mornings! The grass looked like it was covered in frost and that’s when we heard it – the whispers, getting louder and louder and this terrible, terrible breathing sound. It was just awful, agents.’

‘Is that what got your son in the hospital?’ Castiel inquired, making the woman turn to him, her small hand clinging to his forearm.

‘No, heaven’s no! The noises kept getting louder and when I noticed it, my Daniel is struggling on the floor, shaking his head and writhing on the concrete. It was like he was being possessed,’ Linda covered her mouth with her hand, trying to fight a new wave of tears.

‘You didn’t see anyone or perhaps smell something weird?’ Dean asked.

‘The street was completely empty and as far as smells, only freshly cut grass. I don’t think that’s weird, agent.’

‘It’s not,’ Dean replied, eyebrows furrowed deep in thought, ‘Thank you, Mrs. Griffin.’

‘Oh, agent, I just want this to end. I can’t stop thinking about my boy on the ground, crying out words that I couldn’t understand,’ she breathed, looking back and forth between Dean and Cass’ eyes, ‘I think it got to me as well, but not like it did to Dan. I felt so weak and cold… and I kept replaying in my head the moment when my brother died, oh it was awful, reliving that moment whilst my son was right there, struggling, in need of his mother!’

‘Mrs. Griffin,’ a nurse called, getting the woman’s attention. She excused herself, leaving Castiel and Dean alone to reflect on what they had just been told.

 

* * *

 

 

The AMC matador was parked at the viewpoint, barely visible as Sam and Auriel made their way down the steps of the cliff that lead into a botanical garden.

‘Is this the right place?’ Auriel wondered, looking at the trees and plants surrounding them as they walked through the path covered in leaves and tree branches. The garden seemed to be empty, which alarmed them to the possibility of a trap.

‘Yes, but I don’t think-‘

‘Someone’s here,’ Auriel whispered, blocking Sam’s path with her arm. She could _feel_ someone but she couldn’t see them. What if it was Lucifer? She was nowhere near ready to confront him and _Sam_ was here. Auriel couldn’t let anything happen to the hunter, but for some selfish reason, she didn’t want him to leave her alone in this _beautiful_ place.

Sam made a move for his gun, but Auriel interrupted his actions giving him a deadpan look, ‘Seriously, Sam?’

‘It gives me a sense of protection,’ he whispered back at her.

‘It won’t do much,’ she whisper-shouted, ‘I’ll protect you.’

‘Auriel, we don’t even know what we’re going to confront. I’m going to use my gun.’

‘You are very stubborn, you know that?’

‘Oh, I’m stubborn? That’s ironic of you to say,’ Sam rolled his eyes, his gun still lowered at his side.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Auriel furrowed her eyes at him, crossing her arms at her chest – a habit of hers.

 

‘I’m awfully sorry to interrupt the quarrel, but it’s not every day I’m in the presence of _God’s light_ and… Lucifer’s own vessel,’ a man’s voice cut through the air and both Sam and Auriel turned abruptly to look at the figure standing a few feet from them. A man, still relatively young in appearance, with light brown hair and displaying a case of heterochromia – a blue eye and a brown eye – stood tall and self-assured, looking back at them with a condescending attitude.

‘Auriel,’ Sam whispered, looking at the archangel through the corner of his eyes and waiting for a sign that showed if this was a good or a bad company.

She ignored the hunter, thrown off by the presence of this man, ‘Out of all of them, it had to be you.’

‘Aw, come on. It’s not that bad!’

‘Auriel,’ Sam repeated a bit louder.

‘Not good,’ she whispered, looking at him.

‘Not good?’ the man said feigning offense, moving to stand closer to the two of them, ‘I’m at least 50 per cent good.’

‘Who are you?’ Sam demanded.

‘Oh, we’re doing the whole introduction thing?’ he looked back and forth between Sam and Auriel, smirking, ‘I’m Samael, but you can call me Sam if you want to. We’re homonyms!’

‘Cut the act, you know what we’re here for,’ Auriel stepped forward, standing between the taller men, ‘And knowing you, I’m not going to walk out of here with my blade after a polite talk. So, let’s speed up the process, because we have important things to do.’

‘ _We_? You’re a couple now?’ Samael raised his brows in entertainment, ‘I guess you and Lucifer really are two peas in a pot.’

 

Sam felt like an alien in this talk – he didn’t know what to do or what to say, if he should intervene or not. It didn’t normally happen, hence why he was feeling estranged standing next to these two.

‘The blade, Samael,’ Auriel reminded him of the reason they were here.

‘Straight to business. What makes you think I have it?’

Auriel stared at him, waiting for the angel to speak again. Before getting to this place, she wasn’t sure if they would find something in here, but then Samael appeared and now she was _sure_ he had her blade with him.

‘That’s right, you don’t,’ he laughed coldly, turning his gaze to Sam, ‘I’ll tell you what, Auriel, let’s make a trade,’ she furrowed her eyes at his words and at the way he was staring at Sam with a mischievous glint in his eyes, ‘You get your precious blade and I get the hunter.’

‘What?’ Sam and Auriel asked in unison.

‘You know what he _is_ ,’ Samael hinted.

‘You know where Lucifer is?’

Samael let out a laugh, pacing across the path, ‘Sweetie, who doesn’t?’

 

Auriel exchanged a glance with Sam whilst the angel was still pacing in front of them, an arrogant smirk planted on his face. Could it be? Did he truly know where Lucifer was? Most likely so – Samael was Lucifer’s ally in Heaven, she wouldn’t be surprised if they had reunited after Lucifer was freed from his cage.

‘Connect the dots, Auri,’ Samael cooed, walking towards them, ‘Why do you think you’re out of the Dome? Who do you think got the spell from your brothers’ possessions and _casually_ placed it in a conspicuous place so that the very own King of Hell found it and quickly delivered it to none other than the Winchester brothers? All the black eyes and hunters that you’ve been getting information from – they were all in the right place at the right time. Coincidence? I don’t think so.’

Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was all a trap, conceived by the devil himself to get him and Auriel here. Every single detail was thought out and all the circumstances from the time they had set their hands on the parchment that held the spell to summon Auriel had been thought out by Lucifer. It was like he had created a trail of candy and Sam and Auriel were excited 8 year olds. This couldn’t possibly end well. His brain was running through all their options – quite limited at the time.

‘The devil has its eye on you, girl,’ Samael sing-sang, ‘And he loves the fact that you managed to trap the _right_ Winchester.’

‘Where’s the blade,’ Auriel demanded, stepping forward and effectively blocking Samael’s path towards Sam. She had to act fast if she wanted to get her and Sam back to a safe place. Samael wasn't easily deceivable, he'd hold a grudge against them and chase them until he met his goal - he was, after all, the angel of death.

The angel held up his hands in defence, ‘Always so hasty… Good things come to those who wait and so and so, you know the drill,’ he dulled on as he unzipped his black leather jacket, withdrawing from the inside Auriel’s archangel blade.

Her eyes lit up as she reached for it, watching the blade come to life with its characteristic fiery glow as her skin made contact with its handle. Sam watched the remarkable moment, also keeping an eye on Samael whose smirk had grown wider – like his plan was going as it should be.

Auriel had her blade back in her designed place, helped by the runes that Michael had so carefully engraved on it and that made it so that when she didn’t need it, the blade would blend in with her Grace, making her more powerful. She was still standing between the angel and the hunter, so she withdrew herself from the joyous sensation of having what was hers back and reached out to grab a handful of Sam’s flannel shirt. Before Samael could realize what was happening, Auriel had already snapped her fingers and transported Sam and herself to the town where Castiel and Dean were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you liking the story so far?  
> The case Castiel and Dean are working is related to a creature that I borrowed from another fandom, can you guess what it is? :b


	7. Chapter 7

_“Welcome to Hell, dear,” Lucifer opened his arms as a welcoming gesture, inviting Auriel to step into the dark place. She didn’t go beyond the open gate, looking around the place with fright._

_“You don’t seem very impressed,” he watched her reaction, lowering his arms at his sides and stepping closer to her, “Auriel, do you realize how great this will be? Come on, you just have to trust me, yes?”_

_She wasn’t sure she could; This place made her skin crawl and her mind to fill up with dark colours. It was a bad omen that she couldn’t ignore, but she was so enthralled by Lucifer and his presence, with him finally being there next to her after being away for so long. Now he was back and he wanted her to stay with him, willing to share the place he had created with her and only her. Slowly, she nodded her head and accepted his hand, stepping into the gloomy space._

_“That’s my Auri,” Lucifer pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head and smoothly stroking her hair._

_“Do I have to stay?” she whispered into his chest, feeling his Grace on her skin._

_Lucifer pulled back to look at her face, a hint of annoyance splattered on his features, “You don’t, but I want you to visit me. Often. I need your help, Auriel. I need allies, someone who is willing to obey my every command and to help me expand my… realm, let’s call it a realm.”_

_“What do you want me to do?”_

_Lucifer withdrew away from Auriel, squinting his eyes in thought, “I want you to have a word with Samael. I could use a bit of help from him.”_

_Auriel furrowed her brows at the odd request. Why Samael? What plan did Lucifer conceive that required his help? Noticing her reaction to his demand, Lucifer tilted his head slightly, grinning at her, “I can’t have my sweet little angel doing such a belittling task.”_

_“What task would that be?”_

_“I’m not going to spoil the surprise,” Lucifer pursed his lips, “Now get to work and don’t come back without Samael.”_

 

The sound of Sam’s voice interrupted the memory that was playing inside Auriel’s mind. The pair of them had reunited with Castiel and Dean in the motel they had chosen to spend the night and after updating them on what had just happened, the group was set on continuing with their task, pretending that nothing else important was going on. They were focused on doing research for the ongoing case, determined to finish it as soon as possible to get back to the safety of the Bunker. Castiel was sitting at the table next to the window, splitting his attention between the tv and the passers outside, whilst Dean was sitting at the headboard of one of the beds with his computer on his lap and dinner at his side. Sam and Auriel chose the couch to do their contribution – Sam researching on his tablet and Auriel, next to him, observing intently as she fished for the fries that were a part of Sam’s dinner.

‘I think I got something,’ Sam spoke, his eyes flying across the website he was on, ‘So get this, dementors are “[shaped like humans covered in dark hooded clothes, their skin resembles that of a grey rotting body. Though they are blind, they can sense and feed on positive feelings, draining their victims’ happiness](https://www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/dementors)” and they can extract souls with their dementor’s kiss.’

 

The word _dementor_ got both Castiel and Auriel’s attention. It wasn’t usual to have something like _that_ roaming around the Earth – certainly not in the United States. It was bad enough that a dementor could be on the loose, now getting rid of it would be another story. As it was attracted by sensing people’s emotions, Sam and Dean were possible targets and the fact that they couldn’t see it didn’t make matters better.

‘How do we hunt the son of a bitch?’ Dean asked, taking a swig from his beer.

Sam searched the webpage, squinting his eyes at the lack of information, ‘It mentions chocolate, but I don’t think…’

‘Chocolate is meant to be for the victims. We can’t get their souls back, but we can get them out of that vegetative state they are in,’ Castiel informed them, turning in his chair to face the Winchesters.

‘Cass, you know what this thing is?’ Dean question, getting an affirmative answer from the angel, ‘So how do we kill it?’

‘First of all, _you_ certainly won’t be killing anything,’ Auriel spoke up, making all heads turn to her, ‘Humans can’t see dementors, you can only feel them. As far as killing goes, you don’t kill them. They are repulsed by light, so that would cast them away for a while.’

‘Light… Like a flashlight?’ Dean offered.

‘It shouldn’t be artificial. It ought to be something produced by a witch or any other being that can perform such act,’ Castiel warned.

‘God’s light,’ Sam mumbled, ‘Auriel, what Samael said, is it true?’

The archangel nodded and Sam proceeded, ‘Could you do it?’

‘I could do it, Castiel could do it, nearly every angel could. I’m not special, Sam,’ Auriel spoke calmly, ‘The plan is to lure the dementor or _dementors_ and Castiel and I will deal with it. Then we can get out of here.’

‘Wait, Sam and I,’ Dean inquired, throwing his legs over the side of the bed, ‘You’re going to use us as bait?’

‘Dean, if it’ll stop this whole thing…’

‘No, Sam. Cass and I can handle this, you and Auriel can go and we’ll meet at the Bunker.’

‘We’re not gonna leave, Dean.’

‘Stop volunteering for martyr, you won’t even get a scratch in you. We’ll stay and help. The sooner we get to someplace safe, the better,’ Auriel shut the brother’s arguing down, placing another fry in her mouth.

 

They were exposed to Samael. He could strike at any minute. Even though Castiel and Auriel’s efforts combined would surpass Samael’s skills, he shouldn’t be underestimated. Besides, she never had to duel with anyone whose skills were similar to hers, she didn’t know what could be the possible outcome. Getting to somewhere undetectable and warded like the Bunker was the smartest thing to do at the time, but they wouldn’t go into hiding. It didn’t suit Auriel to run away from confrontation – if anything, she _enjoyed_ the whole process.

 

* * *

 

 

Auriel and Castiel walked in front of Sam and Dean in the empty road surrounded by the woods. The moon above them offered enough light to allow them to see each other and the path they were taking. Sam walked with his hands on his jacket’s pockets and his eyes fixed on Auriel; on the way her wavy hair moved along with her steps, the way the moonlight made her look even more angelic and innocent and he couldn’t help but notice her curves – her vessel’s curves, but still – and the way her jeans made her backside look. Sam adverted his gaze glancing up at the stars, clearing his throat as he chastised himself for his behaviour – of course Sam eventually returned his eyes back to Auriel.

‘Sam,’ Dean drew his brother’s attention towards him, smirking as an acknowledgement of Sam’s actions, ‘You little rascal.’ Sam feigned a confused look at his brother who was now chuckling with little puffs of his breath coming out into the dark night air. ‘Is that your _happy_ memory?’

The angels had told them that to attract the dementors they had to focus on happy recollections. Sam had already picked a small compilation of good memories (there weren’t many to start with, the pile of bad memories outnumbered the happy ones) and, no, that wasn’t one of them.

‘Whatever, Dean,’ Sam replied with an eyeroll.

‘Own it, Sammy. You have a thing for Auriel,’ Dean nudged him with his elbow, ‘She might have a thing for you.’

‘She’s an archangel. She doesn’t have feelings.’

‘You didn’t deny your feelings though.’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Sam grunted, pushing his brother away and ignoring his laughs.

 

They had been walking for almost half an hour and there were still no signs of the dementors. Auriel stopped walking and set her hands on her hips, letting out a sigh. She looked at the men that had gathered around her, stopping to meet Sam’s eyes and just as she was about to open her mouth to say this wasn’t working, they all felt it: an uncharacteristic cold spreading through the night, accompanied by frost that formed beneath their feet. Castiel and Auriel moved, leaving the brothers between them, as they listened to the loud breathing sound. It sounded like it was more than one dementor and their effect was starting to be felt by both Sam and Dean. Auriel looked around and she spotted them – three incredibly big dementors coming out of the woods and sliding in their direction. Castiel was the first to act, using his Grace to repulse the creatures that kept getting closer.

She seemed frozen under the dementor’s progress in reaching them. Something wasn’t right – Castiel managed to stop two of the dementors that were aiming for the Winchesters, but the third one seemed to be investing towards _her_. It couldn’t be, she didn’t have emotions or feelings or any of the emotional things that were typical of humans. Why was the dementor coming for her? Why wasn’t she reacting to it?

It was at arms’ length, uncovering its hand from under the cloak and reaching for Auriel. She heard herself shriek as she leaned away from that putrid hand’s grasp and lifted her own hand, casting her Grace towards the dementor with all her power. She successfully pushed it away and looked around to find that Castiel had managed to send the other two into nothingness. Auriel felt confused; she shouldn’t be a target for the dementor, nor should she be affected by its presence. Her head was spinning and her vision was getting blurry - there was something wrong with her Grace. She could feel it pulsing out of control, weakening her and making her fall to her knees on the asphalt. Auriel faintly felt someone’s hands on her back steadying her and keeping her from hitting the ground, as she heard blurred sounds of voices.

Within instants, someone forced her mouth open and shoved a piece of chocolate inside. She felt immediately better, the giddiness gradually dissipating and her Grace returning to its normal behaviour. Looking over her shoulder, Auriel found Dean kneeling next to her with his hands on her back and in front of her, there was Sam crouched down to be at her level, his face scrunched up with worry.

She blinked to regain her composure, chewing on the piece of chocolate that was handed to her. Did _that_ just happen? All three of them were staring at her with confused looks – to be honest, no one could be as confused as her. Auriel couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that a dementor had gone after her, an archangel devoid of feelings.

 

_Auriel sat with her legs crossed at her ankles and her arms crossed over her chest, watching the three archangels talk about her as if she wasn’t right there next to them. She found the situation slightly humoristic even though she kept her face emotionless, looking bored._

_“She is getting similar to those apes with every day that goes by,” Raphael spoke._

_“She’s not, brother. So what if she feels something? She is nowhere near them. She is mighty and compassionate, not everyone can be so uptight like you,” Gabriel replied, rolling his eyes at Raphael’s accusations._

_“I agree with Gabriel, Raphael. That’s nothing but a minor thing about her. To have something akin to having emotions or feelings only makes her more complex… more intriguing,” Michael said, looking at Auriel with his eyes narrowed in thought. He walked away from the group to stand behind Auriel, making her sit straight in her chair. Michael placed his hands in the back of the chair and leaned down so that his face was next to Auriel’s, his eyes trained on the two archangels in front of them, “What worries me, though, are Auriel’s little alone trips to Earth after she was strictly forbidden to step a foot outside of Heaven,” he straightened up, his hands still on the chair, “Now, I was willing to ignore this rogue behaviour coming from our gem were it not for the fact that she has been throwing sand in our eyes in the hopes that we don’t find out where she’s been going.”_

_Auriel was holding her breath, dreading the confrontation that was bound to happen. Not being able to see Michael’s face scared her. She couldn’t stand the scrutinizing look coming from Raphael and Gabe’s disappointment combined with Michael’s harsh words coated in a sickening sweet tone made her want to run away and seek comfort in the one that she could always rely on. She soon found out that Michael’s Grace strapped her to the chair, making her unable to move – peachy!_

_“No, no. You’re not going anywhere, Auriel,” Michael spat, feeling her attempts to escape, “You’re lucky I care about you enough to let you go, but you better not disobey my commands again. I don’t think you want to find out what will happen if you do, are we clear?”_

_Auriel nodded with her eyes closed, trying to avoid everything and keep a straight face on._

_“Answer me,” he roared, letting go of the chair causing Auriel to fall to the ground now that Michael’s Grace wasn’t stopping her from moving. She let out a sob, using her hands to push herself into a sitting position on the floor, whispering, “Yes, Michael.”_

* * *

 

 

After stopping by the hospital to hand out pieces of chocolate to the affected people – which proved to be a tricky situation, since someone had to distract the nurses so that the other could sneak into the room and insert a piece of chocolate inside the victim’s mouths – the quartet set off in the Impala heading towards the Bunker. The journey back was quiet with both angels sitting in the backseat listening to the slow and easy conversation the brothers had going on.

Auriel felt troubled after the events of the earlier days; everything raging from Samael and Lucifer to the dementors made her distressed. It was too much at a time. She was used to calmness, to having no worries at all and now she was thrown into the fire. Nothing was the way she knew it to be and unlike what she thought, Auriel was having a hard time to getting used to life on Earth. She glanced at Castiel sitting next to her and wondered if he felt the same way she did or if he had adapted himself to live on this planet. He seemed to be doing fine, but angels were good at distancing themselves from things like these so there wasn’t a way to tell if he truly felt like he belonged. She sure knew she didn’t.

They reached the Bunker at the afternoon’s peak and decided to take some much-deserved time to rest. Dean isolated himself in his bedroom telling Sam to call him when dinner was ready and Cass approached the taller Winchester to ask him if he could use the tv in his room to _“watch the bee documentary they are going to air, I think it’s extremely important to learn about such animals. Did you know their lives are at risk, Sam?”_ to which he said yes, dismissing the angel.

 

It was just Sam and Auriel in the library – it seemed like they somehow always ended up alone – surrounded by bookshelves and the immense table. Auriel started pacing through the bookshelves, reading a few titles from the books on the shelves as Sam took a seat in one of the leather couches, sighing in comfort and leaning his head back until it rested on the wall behind him. She noticed a few loose sheets neatly piled in a table next to one of the couches in the back of the library and caught a glimpse of her name scribbled at the bottom of the first page. The archangel sat down on the couch with her legs beneath her and reached out for the page, her eyes analysing the handwriting that she recognized as being Sam’s. He had outlined the word _wisdom_ and glossed something next to it.

‘Very audacious and dark humoured?’ she read it aloud, catching Sam’s attention from the opposite end of the room, ‘Honestly, Sam, this is borderline stalking.’

The grin on Auriel’s face assured him that she wasn’t offended by Sam’s research on her. He felt that it was okay to joke about it, ‘I forgot to add _conceited_ to the list, do you mind writing it down?’

She scoffed, half-heartedly upset, before setting down the paper back in its pile and leaning back against the couch, ‘You should add misfit instead,’ she offered, resting her elbow on the arm of the couch and supporting her head with her hand.

Sam realized the conversation was taking a different tone and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, ‘Misfit?’

She breathed out a laugh, thinking about how comfortable she felt next to the hunter. How he made her feel like she was where she was supposed to be - maybe it was a good thing to have someone she could trust and that made her feel at ease. The way she behaved around Sam was very different from the way she did around Castiel and Dean. Her relationship with Castiel was what one could expect from two celestial beings, it was simple and relied on topics that were typically theirs. Meanwhile, her relationship with Dean was still very premature. They were never alone (unlike her and Sam) which made it difficult to properly communicate.   
‘Where do I fit in, Sam?’ she spoke softly, 'Not in Heaven, not in Hell. Apparently, not on Earth either.’

'What makes you say that?’

'I feel so out of place. I still don’t know what’s going on, I haven’t gotten used to having my freedom back and to be able to use my wings and my abilities. Lost… that’s what I feel like. I can’t turn to the ones that I knew, because they’re either dead or plotting some complex plan that can only end terribly,’ she paused, organizing her ideas properly, 'On top of that, I feel like I’m not helping you at all. If anything, I’m putting you in the line of fire. Setting Lucifer on you… and now the other, his little  _friend_.’

The hunter listened carefully before standing up and moving closer to Auriel, taking one of the chairs from the table and turning it so that he sat facing her, 'Auriel, you don’t have to worry about us. Lucifer would come after us regardless of you being here or not, like he has in the past. With you here, we can stand a chance against him, but you need to believe in yourself and I know how hard that can be. You’re outstanding, Auriel,’ Sam was trying to speak from his heart to convince Auriel that what he was saying was true, but somewhere along the way he started trailing off. It was better to stop there before he said something that he wouldn’t regret.

Auriel smiled at him, sliding her legs from under her and onto the ground, 'You should add that to the list.’

Sam chuckled, running his hand through his hair, 'We’ll work it out.’

She nodded and stood up, stopping in front of Sam and motioned for him to stand up, 'Humans seem quite fond of this.’

'What?’ Sam realized what Auriel meant when she opened her arms inviting him for a hug. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around her - being this close to the archangel allowed him to feel her Grace glowing out of her in a majestic radiance that was so typical of Auriel and that kept his mind in a daze whenever she was around. He stepped back, offering her a small smile.

Auriel eyed his features, mulling over the complexity of the hunter. His smell of musk drew her into his embrace and the feeling of his arms around her gave her a sense of protection and righteousness that revitalized her entire being, dissipating her insecurities and bringing her back into her usual self that fit her like a glove. Was it possible for a human to grow on her the way Sam had? If only she could talk to one of the archangels and clear out all the doubts and questions that filled her mind, she could move on and stop moping about the sudden change in her life.

There could be a way…

‘Do you mind if I join Castiel to watch the documentary?’ she questioned, ‘I want to see what he’s on about. The bees were perfectly fine, last time I checked.’

Sam lifted his eyebrows at Auriel, ‘Last time you-… Sure, go ahead.’

She blinked up at him, widening her smile before retreating out of the library. She walked down the long corridor and stopped when she found an empty bedroom far away from either of them to prevent anyone to come barging in.

Auriel looked around the room, furrowing her eyes in concentration. She clicked her fingers and waited.

 

'Hi there, peaches.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The description used for the dementor comes from Pottermore. 
> 
> Save the bees, guys


	8. Chapter 8

‘Hi there, peaches.’

‘Gabriel,’ Auriel acknowledged the presence of the archangel’s figure; one of her creations that didn’t, by far, do justice to the being it mimicked. It lacked Gabriel’s liveliness and the vessel’s features were a bit off as well. She could see a few cracks in the echo and its translucid colour showed that it was doomed to vanish at any minute. It all relied in Auriel’s ability to stay focused. Nevertheless, she smiled fondly at the presence of someone she knew and was close to.

Gabriel watched her expectantly, seemingly aware of his feeble condition and trying to narrow down Auriel’s efforts to keep his figure stable.

‘What do I do now?’ she asked, not bothering to explain what she was referring to, because the echo was _her_ creation, so it developed through her mind and the things she already knew. The way Gabriel looked and acted were according to the way she remembered him, which might not match reality.

‘Seems like you’ve got a lot to keep your head spinning, isn’t it?’ Gabriel inquired, smiling at her, ‘There’s Samael and Lucifer, everything being new to you, all new realities you have to adjust to. Nothing you weren’t prepared for.’

Auriel listened as the archangel went on, agreeing with his words and at the same time cringing at the way the cracks were increasing.

‘But it’s not physical confrontation you’re worried about. You know your skills, you know what you can and can’t do and now that you’ve got your accessory back, you’re all smug about it,’ he proceeded, cleverly unravelling Auriel’s concerns and clearing out the fog in her mind, ‘For some reason, you’re only thinking about being back in the presence of Lucifer. Oh, of course, let’s not forget your new _friend_ , the hunter. You’re worried about him?’

She nodded slowly, ‘I’m worried about what’s going to happen to him. I was thinking that maybe it would be better if I- ….’

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Gabriel interrupted, his features growing serious, ‘I would strongly advise you not to do it. Auri, you know what risks would come with that?’

‘No risks, as far as I’m concerned. That’s exactly why I want to do it, to protect him as best as I can, to- …’

‘ _Protect him_?’ he cut her off again, ‘Do not go down that road, you don’t know the bigger picture. You don’t know what’s going to happen if you…,’ Gabriel sighed, closing his eyes, ‘Why not protect the both of them? Why are you so keen on shielding Sam, but don’t even consider doing so with Dean?’

‘It doesn’t work like that,’ she argued, her tone harsher than she had realized it to be, ‘You know I can only link myself to _one_ human.’

‘Who just so happens to be Lucifer’s vessel. You’re just dying to see him again, aren’t you? Is that why you’re going to submit Sam to such process? To deceive him in order of your own wishes?’ the echo was starting to fade away, flames arising from the bedroom floor reflecting Auriel’s burning rage at the figure in front of her. It was starting to turn into Raphael as it faded, its final speech miles away from what Gabriel would ever say to her. When the flames consumed the echo, she was left to herself once more. Auriel sat down on the bed, her face displaying no emotions and her posture seemingly serene. The only sign of her disturbed behaviour came from the lightbulbs in the room exploding and shattering glass everywhere. She sighed, rolling her eyes in anger, before exiting the room to join Castiel in Sam’s bedroom.

 

* * *

 

  

Sam woke up in a bed that wasn’t his. Well, he didn’t wake up in a bed, but in one of the chairs in the map room. His neck hurt like crazy and his mouth felt dry. There was a book on the floor next to him, which made him assume he had fallen asleep reading it. He blinked to clear up the sleep from his eyes, running his hands through his face and his hair.

The Bunker was still quiet, no signs of activity, making him believe that it was early in the morning and a quick glance at his watch confirmed it. He stood up, stretching his back and hearing the pleasant cracks of his bones, grabbed the book and set it on the table. Sam made his way to the bathroom for his morning routine, spending extra time in the shower to ease away the pain from his neck. He wrapped a towel around his hips and walked towards his bedroom to get dressed.

When he opened the door, Auriel and Castiel looked up at him, surprised by his sudden intrusion. He frowned at the angels sitting in his bed watching a documentary about the hummingbird. Castiel quickly returned his eyes back to the tv screen, not wanting to miss the amazing cinematography, mumbling a quick, ‘Hi, Sam.’

Auriel’s eyes lingered on Sam’s figure as he reached in his dresser to get some clean clothes. She noticed his strained neck and remembered that he had probably spent the night somewhere not suitable for a human, because they had taken over his room. She stood up and walked towards the hunter, reaching out her hand to relieve Sam of the knots that had formed in his muscles, but at the last second, he turned around and grabbed her wrist, effectively stopping her actions.

‘I was going to help,’ she murmured, confusion in her eyes.

Sam felt guilty for his reaction, but his hunter instincts had kicked in without him even realizing.

‘I’m fine,’ he said and released her arm, exiting the room swiftly.

 

He returned to the bathroom to get dressed and as he was exiting the room, he ran into his brother, tying his grey robe with his hair all spiked up from sleep.

‘Hey! Good morning,’ Dean greeted, his voice gruff from lack of use.

‘Good morning,’ Sam swerved out of his brother’s path, clearing the bathroom’s entry.

‘Where are you going?’ Dean questioned, narrowing his eyes at his brother’s sneaky actions.

‘Where does it look like I’m going?’ Sam deadpanned, referring to his outfit – right for running.

Dean nodded, pouting out his lip, ‘I’m coming with you.’

‘What?’ Sam laughed, ‘You’re coming with me for a run?’

‘Yes, Sam. What’s so funny about that?’

Sam held up his hands, ‘Nothing, I’m just surprised.’

‘Give me 10 minutes.’

 

Sam huffed out a laugh, walking down the hallway and entering the kitchen. He grabbed an apple from the fridge, listening intently when a flutter of wings filled the room. The silence that followed made him believe it was Auriel, but turning around he found Castiel, instead.

‘Sam,’ he started, ‘I’m sorry that we took over your bedroom, but the document-…’

‘Don’t worry, Cass,’ Sam dismissed the angel’s apologies, biting down on his apple.

‘What are we going to do?’

‘About what?’

‘Lucifer.’

‘The same we were doing before. Look for info, investigate possible signs of activity, tracking his allies…’ the hunter spoke clearly, ‘Nothing changed, we’re still focused on locking Lucifer in the Cage.’

‘Alright,’ Castiel didn’t seem convinced, but consented anyway, ‘I’m meeting up with Crowley.’

Sam noticed the angel’s change of tone, along with his deep sigh, ‘What for?’

‘Interrogation.’

He snorted at Castiel’s answer, ‘You seem excited.’

The angel rolled his eyes. He didn’t like working with Crowley, but it was essential to get as many leads on Lucifer and they couldn’t ignore any chance at getting close to a possible confrontation with the archangel. If having to deal with Crowley meant getting closer to their goal, Castiel was willing to try.

‘Is Auriel going?’ Sam asked, facing away from Cass to dump his apple leftovers on the trashcan.

'I asked her to,’ Castiel said, 'But she left and I don’t know where she is now.’

They had lost her again, after all the efforts to keep her in sight. Sam tried not to worry about it - he wasn’t her babysitter, she was free to do whatever she wanted, to go wherever she wanted.

 

'Cass,’ Dean greeted, entering the kitchen ready to join Sam for a jog.

Castiel tilted his head to the side, a hint of a small smirk hanging from his lips, 'Are you joining Sam on his workout?’

'Why is everyone so surprised?’ Dean questioned, 'Where’s the other halo? She would side with me.’

'We don’t know,’ Sam offered, tossing a water bottle in his brother’s direction.

'Again?’ Dean caught the bottle effortlessly, his eyes switching between Sam and Cass.

'Let’s not make a big deal out of this. That’s what she wants - attention,’ Sam spoke whilst walking towards the Bunker’s door.

Dean frowned hearing his brother’s words and waited for him to reach the staircase to look back at Castiel and whisper, 'If anything happens, let me know.’

 

When Dean got to the paved road in front of the Bunker, Sam was stretching his muscles, preparing for the exercise. He still couldn’t believe that he was going to trade his morning for _this_ , but given the current situation, he wanted to keep an eye on Sam whenever he could. It was his little brother’s life they were talking about.

‘You sure seem thrilled about her being gone,’ he commented, approaching Sam and starting his own warm-up.

Sam rolled his eyes in exhaustion, ‘It’s not my business, anymore.’

‘Was it your problem before?’ Dean pointed out.

The younger hunter didn’t answer. He was sure Auriel was fine on her own – like she always was. Instead, he slowly started running along the road. Shortly after, Dean followed, keeping the pace Sam had set.

‘You know you don’t have to do this, right?’ Sam asked, looking straight ahead with a small smile on his face.

‘Yes, I do,’ Dean dismissed the observation, a fierce look on his face, ‘You’re my brother.’

‘They can’t find us. Cass did that thing to our ribs, remember?’

‘Are you kidding me? Would I ever forget that when the coroner opens me up he’s going to see those beauties?’ the brothers laughed, their conversation not affecting their run, ‘But it’s better to be safe than sorry.’

Sam shook his head, scoffing at Dean, ‘I’m fine on my own.’

‘Sammy, you’re not the lone wolf type,’ Dean changed his direction, running backwards so that he was facing Sam, ‘Need I remind you about that time when…’

‘You don’t have to bring it up every single time, Dean,’ Sam put off, listening to Dean’s laughter.

He stopped after his brother, who was now holding his belly and laughing at the sky.

‘That’s very funny,’ Sam said sarcastically, even though he couldn’t help but let out a few giggles about it as well.

 

* * *

 

  

Crowley adjusted his apron, cautiously watching the vampire strapped to the metallic chair in the middle of the room. Whilst he waited for Castiel to arrive, he had already gone over his instruments of torture _twice_ and thought of numerous ways to get the little brat spilling the beans.

He’d heard of the vampire through a couple of crossroads demons who threw themselves at Crowley to be the first one to bring him the news. He was pleased to hear that they had something to work with, but the demons only informed him of the vampire’s existence – on their second meeting with the King, they came bearing gifts.

The young vampire had seemingly contacted with Lucifer not long ago, which made Crowley’s eye twitch, because what would _he_ want with a blood sucker? He couldn’t wait to get his answers and make the little boy squirm. Why was he still waiting for Castiel? He could do it himself, be selfish and take all the fun he wanted. But here he was, staring at the fanged creature with his hands in his apron’s front pocket.

Suddenly, he heard a flutter of wings.

‘Finally,’ he mumbled, still looking at the creature.

‘I thought you already had answers,’ Castiel approached the king of Hell, studying the vampire in the chair.

‘I was waiting for you,’ Crowley sniggered, ‘I couldn’t, for the life of me, miss a chance at seeing you in action.’

 

The angel rolled his eyes and stepped towards the vampire, removing the gag from his mouth. He didn’t look a day older than 25 and had shoulder length curly blonde hair, tied in a messy bun with a few locks sticking out. His brown eyes fixed Castiel’s blue ones with a reckless fire that was typical in recently turned vampires – they were amazed by the new reality and thought they could do anything they wanted, feeling like kings in their own little world. Well, Castiel was about to burst this guy’s bubble.

‘Start talking,’ Castiel demanded, stepping back to join Crowley.

The vampire snorted, licking his bottom lip, ‘Hi.’

‘We’ve got a funny one,’ Crowley remarked, narrowing his eyes at the insolent creature in front of them, ‘Or maybe, he just has a death wish. I’d be glad to help with that.’

‘You can’t kill me,’ the vamp said between laughs, ‘You need me for info. Besides, Lucifer would come after you, if you even laid a finger on me.’

Now it was Crowley and Castiel who were laughing (of course, Cass’s laughter didn’t share the same intensity as Crowley’s).

‘Is that so?’ Castiel asked, withdrawing his angel blade from his trench coat’s sleeve and pointing it at the vampire’s chest, ‘We can kill two birds with one stone.’

He dragged the tip of the blade across the vamps’ collarbones, drawing blood from the cut and causing the vampire the hiss in pain. The wound started healing itself immediately after Castiel had leaned back, meaning that the vampire was well fed which would only make their jobs harder.

‘I don’t see Lucifer here, ready to rescue _you_ ,’ the angel pronounced the last word in aversion, staring at the vampire whose attitude had changed drastically.

‘No wonder,’ Crowley picked up a syringe that was laying among his torture tools and inspected it, ‘Why would the _great_ , _brilliant_ and _powerful_ Lucifer come to rescue a leech such as yourself?’

The vampire didn’t answer, instead huffing out breaths of annoyance and trying to break free from his bonds. Crowley brought the syringe in front of the vamp’s face, allowing him to smell the dead man’s blood with more intensity.

‘Here’s the deal, pup,’ Crowley spoke softly, ‘You either give us the information we want and suffer a horrible death or don’t give us what we want and… suffer a horrible death. It is completely up to you.’

They gave the creature a few moments to reflect and see if he would unwind on his own or if he still needed a little push. Apparently, he went for the latter. Crowley lunged for it and stabbed the vampire’s neck with the syringe filled with dead man’s blood, slowly unloading it onto the vamp’s veins and watching as he convulsed and screamed in agony.

Castiel pulled Crowley to the side, the vampire’s screams and attempts to break free sounding in the background, ‘Are you sure he’s had any contact with Lucifer?’

‘The bastard was boasting about it everywhere he went. He was using it to lure his victims…’

‘Wasn’t it just that?’ Castiel offered, ‘He seems to be recently turned. He’s more full of himself than anything.’

‘Let’s wait and see,’ Crowley looked back at the vampire, ‘The moment he realizes he’s going to die and his idol isn’t going to show up to save him, he’ll let it all out.’

 

* * *

 

  

Auriel walked down the side of the road that lead to the Bunker. She had decided to explore the building’s surroundings and look at the things that made her happy. It also served as a distraction from her conversation with Gabriel’s echo and the way Sam’s reaction had hurt her – as much as she hated to admit it. After walking a lot further than what she had intended to, she turned around and started making her way back to the Bunker.

It was a cloudy day, the sun was hidden behind the grey clouds that occupied the entirety of the sky and the wind was calm, occasionally gracing her skin with breeze caresses. She didn’t feel bothered by Earth temperatures, so the feeling of a very cold bubble surrounding her caught Auriel off guard. She looked around, thinking it was another dementor that was coming for her, but her brain ended up drifting towards the possibility of being in the presence of Lucifer.

She drew her blade from the inside of her sleeve, keeping it lowered at her side. The warmth that came from the blade helped diminishing the coldness she felt, but now Auriel was aware of her surroundings and something didn’t feel right.

She kept walking cautiously, gripping her blade with all her power, causing auburn flames to surround the object. Everything was silent and there was no movement around her, but she didn’t let her guard down until she reached the front door that lead to the Bunker. Auriel made sure she couldn’t see anyone or anything suspicious, before swinging the door open and stepping inside.

 

Outside, Lucifer clicked his fingers, making himself visible again. His eyes were still trained on the spot Auriel had disappeared and that lead into the Winchesters’ den. She was right where he wanted her to be. The way he could control her and submit her to his will was incredible. Remarkable, even. With the right little pushes, she would follow all the steps he needed her to, in order to fulfil his goal.

It upset him that out of all of them he had to use Auriel to do this. He truly cared about her and wanted her by his side, where she belonged, but it was also a curious thing to watch her react to all the trials he was putting her through.

When he raised his hand to snap his fingers and leave that place, a thunder broke out in the distance. Lucifer rolled his eyes at the cliché, grunting as he transported himself to another location.

 

* * *

 

Blood was oozing out of the multiple cuts on the vampire’s body, none of them regenerating due to him being too far gone, hanging by a thread to keep living. Crowley had injected a second syringe full of the toxic blood in the vampire’s bloodstream and was now holding a third one, as Castiel kept trying to negotiate with the vampire who they now knew was named Lucas.

‘You’re wasting our time,’ Castiel sighed in frustration and rested his palm against Lucas’ forehead.

The gesture sparked a reaction on the vampire, ‘I’ll tell you… I-I’ll do it.’

‘Finally,’ Crowley set down the syringe and prepared to listen to what the boy had to say.

‘I was just coming back from my nest when he appeared out of nowhere and…’ Lucas paused, straining himself to push out the words, ‘He made me a tempting offer. I’m… I was recently turned. My bloodlust was spiralling out of control… I took it.’

‘What did he offer to you?’ Castiel asked.

Lucas licked his lips, tasting his own blood and grimacing at his current condition, ‘Warranted immortality, all the blood I wanted without having to move a finger.’

The angel and the demon looked quizzically at the vampire, prompting him to continue, ‘He wanted me to… It was a set up, I guess. I just had to cause enough trouble to lure the hunters… Your friends,’ he smirked at them, his expression closer to pain than mockery, ‘Wherever there’s trouble, the Winchesters come running like little kids when they hear the ice-cream truck. It wouldn’t be too difficult…’ Lucas heaved out a breath, ‘But then you came into the picture and now I’m as good as dead.’

Crowley and Castiel were adding the pieces of the puzzle in their heads, what Lucas had just told them starting to make sense and add up to the recent events. They had gotten what they wanted, so without another word, Castiel placed his hand on Lucas’ forehead again and there was a flash of white light, followed by Lucas’ body melting limply against the metal chair, his eyes void of any emotion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support the story's getting so far and for the feedback (I really do appreciate hearing your opinions!) x


	9. Chapter 9

It was raining outside the Bunker. The building’s thick walls reduced the noise to barely audible levels, giving it a soothing sensation.

The past week had been calm, with no signs of new cases in the newspapers or on the web and a suspicious lack of activity in the supernatural world. There were also no advances on the quest for Lucifer.

It wasn’t quite like a quest anymore. The search had become a game where they were Lucifer’s pawns, moving across the board on his commands. None of them liked to be in this position; It required always having to take extra caution whenever they had to go somewhere and looking over their shoulders to make sure they were in the clear, but they were always on edge. The imminent confrontation got Sam and Dean visiting the shooting range more often to release the built-up tension and digging deeper into the Men of Letters’ archives to look for anything helpful.

Right now, the group of four was sitting down at the library’s table playing a card game. Dean and Cass sat on one side of the table, whilst Sam and Auriel sat across from them. At first, the hunters had to guide the angels through the game, answering their many questions and doubts ( _‘I don’t understand, why would the cards be against humanity?’_ , _‘Do we have to fight the cards as well?’_ ), but after a couple of rounds they started getting the point of the game and it started flowing easier.

The brothers had decided to make teams so that the angels felt better about their chances at winning, team one being Dean and Castiel and team two Sam and Auriel. The score was now 3-1.

‘ _If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be talking about_ …’ Dean read the sentence on the black card and waited as the others passed around their answers. After Sam handed him the three white cards, he started reading them aloud, ‘We’ve got… _Stealing an entire pie from Marketplace_ … _Loki, the trickster God_ and… _An erection that lasts over four hours_.’

Dean looked at the three options and identified Sam’s right away ( _Stealing an entire pie_ was an obvious allusion to a situation in the Winchesters past that his brother had encouraged him into), meaning that the other cards were the angel’s authorship.

‘I’ll go with _if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be talking about an erection that lasts over four hours_ ,’ Dean smirked, looking up at the others.

Sam and Cass started looking at each other, trying to figure out who had received the point, but once they realized neither of them had chosen that card their eyes turned to the archangel.

‘Oh right…’ she remembered she had to announce it was her card, ‘We get a point, Sam.’

Auriel smiled at the hunter, ignoring the perplexed looks she got from the three men.

No one was expecting that from _her_. Sam’s mind completely left the planet and went on a journey in a different dimension. She had a point, if Sam didn’t get his mind out of the gutter, he would be talking about an erection that lasts some painful four hours. He was surprised at himself for connecting such thoughts to Auriel, but he brought himself back to reality in time to hear what Dean was saying.

‘… which makes it 3-2. Okay, Cass, you’re up,’ Dean pointed towards the stack of black cards, prompting Castiel to take one.

‘ _I got 99 problems, but a blank ain’t one_ ,’ Castiel read out and waited for the others to give him their cards.

Sam looked at his cards, but none of them seemed to make sense complementing the sentence. He pondered if he should skip this round or throw in a card that didn’t make sense and hope that Auriel would have a good choice to grant them a point. Thinking about it, he could go with a random card to confuse the angel and watch Dean bicker about it – that might be a better idea.

As Sam joined his card to the other players’ options, the noise outside stopped abruptly. Everything went silence for a couple of seconds, before the radio in the library started playing static sounds in the maximum volume, causing a high-pitched noise to fill the room. 

The four of them stood up abruptly, their chairs landing on the floor and noticed the uproar that had started outside.

‘What’s going on?’ Dean asked, his brows drawn close together, retrieving his gun from the back of his jeans, ‘You two; you know what this could be?’

Auriel and Castiel stared at each other before Auriel snapped her fingers and teleported onto the main road just outside the Bunker.

 

The commotion stopped once she was standing in the middle of the paved road. A large circle of people started forming around her and seeing their trues faces made Auriel realize they were in fact demons. Their black eyes stared back at her, watching the archangel with mocking grins.

‘ _Daddy’s dearest_ bunking with the Winchesters?’ one of them taunted, ‘Just when you think you’ve seen it all.’

Having one of _them_ referring to her with that nickname made her stomach churn. She despised them – everything they stood for, everything they did and the way they thought they could overpower her. She was no stranger to this situation and Auriel had no problem dealing with demons. It was their presence that made her incensed; their gut to come seek her and provoke her. It was more an unconscious desire for their own death, but Auriel couldn’t blame them – she’d have the same thought if she were a demon.

 

_“Ta-daa! What do you think?” Lucifer showed Auriel the small army of corrupted souls that Samael had brought. He compared them to humans – an incredible construction that the angels were still trying to figure out. Lucifer was ahead of them, creating his own twisted version of the walking figures. Auriel had come to know the reason he had been cast out of Heaven and she knew that he was corrupting those souls because he was jealous of humankind. This was his way of fighting back._

_About 10 souls were in the room, no longer looking like true souls now that they were draped in black smoke. Auriel didn’t like the way it made her feel. She was supposed to be Lucifer’s main focus, but now there were new things coming into the picture that were going to take her place. He seemed so excited about the new creations, it was like he didn’t care about her anymore._

_“This is just an early stage, of course,” he continued as Auriel remained unresponsive, “But you can see where I’m going with this.”_

_Oh, she could._

_“What if they desert your side?” Auriel inquired, moving around the space to get a better look at the souls._

_“It only takes a snap of your delicate fingers to make them go away,” Lucifer replied with a smug grin, watching Auriel’s movements and the way she reacted to what he was showing her. Trusting her this information was sort of a test – her knew what she would do with it, but it was still fun to watch his predictions play out. Who else but Auriel to act out his wishes exactly as he wanted?_

_“Can I try it?” she stopped in front of one of them. The thick black smoke was hovering in the air and as it felt Auriel’s Grace approaching, it started circling the archangel’s figure, slowly involving her in its smoke. It made her feel smothered and without waiting for Lucifer’s answer, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers making the smoke burn up in flames and vanish into thin air._

_“I don’t recall saying you could,” Lucifer spoke calmly, but with enough exasperation in his tone to make Auriel realize that she shouldn’t have done it._

_“It was going to attack me. You clearly weren’t going to do anything, so I had to act on self-defence…”_

_“Do you really think I was going to let it hurt you?” Lucifer spat, “You had to go and destroy it, because you’re jealous. I can feel it, Auriel.”_

_“I’m not jealous,” she narrowed her eyes, turning away from him, “It’s what I was taught to do. To protect myself.”_

_“You shouldn’t lie,” Lucifer cooed, “It doesn’t go with the holier than thou image you’re trying to sell to my brothers.”_

_Auriel looked at Lucifer over her shoulder, displaying no emotions, before leaving the horrid place without any other words._

‘Do you want to call your friends?’ the demon that was possessing a woman with coffee coloured skin called in the hopes that the Winchesters would hear, ‘Or do you want us to go get them?’

Auriel let out a cold laugh, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, ‘I would love to see you try. Please, entertain me,’ she defied the demon, who just stared back at her. All around her no one was making advances, they were just circling her, ‘Don’t tell me you came here to ask me to be your new leader. I’m flattered, but you should know I’m not a big fan of your kind.’

‘I guess we could say it’s mutual,’ other demon interjected, crossing his arms over his chest, ‘This doesn’t have to be complicated, honey. We just want what we came here for.’

‘Don’t address me like that. I demand respect,’ Auriel twisted her wrist, her hand still at her side, bringing the demon to its knees forcefully. The others stayed surprisingly quiet – they were either afraid of confronting the archangel or their selfishness didn’t motivate them to fight back for the others of their own kind. She kept her hold on the demon, who did not seem pleased at all to be under her control.

‘What do you think you came here for?’ Auriel demanded.

‘You must think you’re something special, don’t you?’ the woman spoke again, ‘Demanding respect and showing off your imbecile powers. Look around, cutie-pie. You’re vastly outnumbered.’

It was true, but being outnumbered didn’t mean that it was a lost cause. It only took a snap of her fingers.

 

_Auriel casually strolled past Raphael as she passed him in the bright hallway. She thought he wouldn’t notice her, given the concentrated look on his face, but to her surprised he called her name making her come to a halt._

_“Where are you going?”_

_She knew she couldn’t lie to him. Raphael would figure it out in a heartbeat and then things would get ugly. She had managed to keep her cover for this long, now it was no time to blow it up. Auriel tried her best to detach herself from what she was feeling and focus on clearing her mind from any of the issues that filled her mind at the moment._

_“For a walk,” she replied, looking straight into his eyes._

_Raphael narrowed his eyes at her answer, “Where to?”_

_“Nowhere in particular,” Auriel sighed softly, “Do you need anything from me?”_

_“No,” Raphael wasn’t buying her story and she could feel her aura getting charged with anxiety, “But since you want to walk, feel free to join me.”_

_“Always bothering our little Auri with boring tasks,” Gabriel approached them and Auriel heard herself let out a breath of relief, “Let her go have her precious walk.”_

_“Why must you always come to her rescue?” Raphael pondered, turning to look at his brother._

_“It’s my job to allow Auriel to experience the upside of Heaven,” Gabriel disclosed, “I left the boring bits up to you.”_

_“Then it’s completely fair that she joins me in this… boring task,” Raphael quirked an eyebrow at Gabriel. It was a friendly dispute between the two archangels that left Auriel in the clear. She was thinking that this might be the right moment to escape, even though she felt guilty for leaving Gabriel after he had stood up for her. It was now or never._

_She turned around and followed the usual path as quick as she could, promptly getting out of Heaven and heading to the alternative familiar place._

_Auriel knew they would search for her and it wouldn’t take too long for them to realize she was not it Heaven. It was only a matter of time before they came for her._

_Walking through the dark place, Auriel kept looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was following her and that she still had time to do what she had come here for. She was forced to stop when she encountered a group of demons standing in her way._

_They had evolved from being simple corrupted souls to taking the form of humans. They were, as Lucifer put it, more refined. Souls that were tortured and corrupted into becoming evil that walked around the Earth in the shapes of common humans._

_“You’re not welcome here,” one of them said, displaying its black eyes in a show of dominance._

_Auriel rolled her eyes and tried to push past them to find Lucifer. The demons wouldn’t budge and it made Auriel frustrated. She hated them with a capital h._

_“We said you’re not welcome.”_

_“I need to see Lucifer,” she warned, “Get out of my way.”_

_“He’s our father. You have no business with him,” the demon unexpectedly attacked Auriel, making her fall back._

_All she wanted was to find Lucifer, she didn’t have time for these abominations to block her way and she sure didn’t have time or patience for being attacked by these flawed replacements. She wouldn’t have it. Auriel wouldn’t tolerate being in the presence of self-assured demons, who thought they could swipe in and take her place. She belonged next to Lucifer, not them. She should be the centre of his attentions, not them. She was his main creation. Not them._

_The archangel stood up, her eyes flashing bright with auburn flames as she revelled in the feeling that overcame her when she raised her hand and clicked her fingers, blasting the demons into inexistence. She resumed her path and gave the same treatment to all the other demons that she met. It was a gore show. She was blinded by all the repressed emotions towards the creatures and the chance at seeking revenge at her own hands. Her once white dress was now covered in blood, her features resembling an insane woman on a mission. All the rage burning inside her was transferred to her mojo, strengthening her with each kill._

_Auriel came to a dead end which seemed to trigger her consciousness back to the front panel of her mind, making her realize what she had done. She looked down at herself, horrified at her own actions, before looking behind her at the trail of bodies that had formed in her wake. She fell to her knees, her shoulders sinking as she watched the scene in front of her._

_She was set up. This incredibly vivid experience was just an illusion planted inside her head. They were just products of her imagination. She had slumped to Lucifer’s mind games and now her Grace felt different – agitated whether it was with excitement or fear, she couldn’t quite understand. She had given in to his manipulation, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent human beings. She started wheezing, clinging on to the edges of her blood-stained dress._

_“Auri…” Gabriel’s pained whisper made her look up, realizing the three archangels were staring at her, kneeling on the ground in a horrifying state. She knew this was it – this was the end for her._

The Bunker’s front door swung open and the Winchesters came stumbling out with their guns raised. They stopped when they saw the panorama outside and looked between Auriel and the demons surrounding her.

‘Oh, we’ve got company!’ a different demon spoke up with a grin, ‘Shall we?’

He signalled for the other creatures to follow his lead and it took Auriel a split second to react, snapping her fingers at the demons that were coming at her. It didn’t work, not even causing a dint. She briefly looked at the Winchesters, but the hunters seemed prepared, handling the demons quite well, even better than her, who was just standing there in the middle of the road. She was really out of practice. At least this would serve as a training exercise to get her back to her old days before she was locked inside the Dome.

Auriel drew out her blade and the confrontation started; she stabbed a few demons and used her Grace to smite others.

When the coffee coloured woman started making advances towards her, she heard Dean’s voice shouting her name, making her turn around just in time to see a new figure approaching the improvised battlefield. She gathered an immense amount of power to blast the woman away, effectively dealing with that case. The demons seemed to be taken care of – it didn’t take them long to eradicate the black-eyed creatures, but now they had a bigger problem who was fast approaching them.

The brothers went to stand next to Auriel as Samael kept walking towards them. When he was close enough, he started clapping his hands sarcastically, ‘Bravo! What a great show you put on. If I had known this would turn out in this lovely set, I would’ve brought snacks,’ he said gesturing around at all the fallen bodies.

None of them said a word, their confused reactions to the angel’s presence manifesting in their faces.

Samael looked the Winchesters up and down before casually flicking his hand, making the hunters fly backwards towards the entrance of the Bunker, hitting the concrete wall and slipping to the ground, ‘You look better over there.’

‘Samael,’ Auriel intervened, the flame within her coming to life. She gained his attention and went ahead, stepping towards him, ‘What are you up to?’

‘Plenty of things, none of them good,’ he quirked an eyebrow at her.

‘Very funny,’ Auriel sighed, motioning at the demons around them, ‘You call this a challenge?’

‘No… I’d say it was more of a distraction,’ Samael replied with a pensive look.

She tilted her head, looking over at the spot where Samael had thrown the Winchesters. Both brothers were unconscious lying on the ground.

‘Exactly,’ Samael praised, ‘You’re quick to catch up, pet. But it seems like you’ve let a few things slip out of your pretty little brain,’ he was stepping towards her, closing the gap between them, ‘You’ve got your blade back and, funny enough, it came in handy today, didn’t it? The thing is: I didn’t get my end of the deal. Now, you know me, Auri. I don’t like to be betrayed.’

‘I guess no one does,’ Auriel spoke, looking into Samael’s eyes.

He let out a choked laugh at the ground that disappeared as soon as he looked at the archangel, his hand darting out to grip her chin tightly and roughly pulling her towards him, ‘Don’t play with me, Auriel. I’m here to take what’s mine.’

‘You mean Sam? Go ahead,’ her answer surprised him, but his grip didn’t falter, ‘Take him to Lucifer. That won’t make him say yes. He’ll never do it.’

‘I don’t care what Lucifer does with the bloody hunter, I’m just here to complete my task…’

‘Look at you,’ Auriel interrupted, ‘He’s got you on your hands and knees for him.’

Samael’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back and let go of Auriel, but kept their proximity. He leaned down to whisper in the ear, making her feel his breath on the side of her neck ‘I’m not going after your spot, sweetie. Now, if you don’t mind…’

The angel turned towards the Winchesters, but was stopped after Auriel raised her hand and restricted his movements. Samael freed himself easily and now his attention was back on her which gave her more time to effectively protect the Winchesters. Her goal was to build a fire ring around the brothers that would stop Samael from interfering with them, in order to do so she needed to remember the runes that Michael had taught her in one of their last lessons whilst keeping Samael’s focus on her for as long as she could. Through the corner of her eyes, she could see that the hunters were starting to wake up which could either help her or ruin the entire plan.

‘What was that?’ Samael squinted his eyes at her menacingly, ‘Are you trying to stop me?’

Auriel didn’t reply, instead focusing on the remaining runes. She just needed to snap her fingers and get it done.

‘I’d be quiet if I were you,’ Samael whispered at her.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A fire ring roared to life around the Winchesters who were getting back on their feet. She felt proud of herself, her aura shining with confidence at the amazing feeling that came from knowing that Sam was safe under her protection. Dean too, of course.

The moment was short lived, though; Samael had turned around to admire her work, letting out a cold laugh when a different voice sounded from behind them.

‘You bitch,’ the demon that Auriel had blasted away was back, brandishing an angel blade in her hand that Auriel hadn’t noticed her to be carrying before. She was charging towards the archangel who drew out her own blade, readying herself for battle.

The two creatures lunged at each other, giving Samael the perfect opportunity to take advantage of Auriel’s distraction and attempt to break through the barrier she had created around the hunters. With the right amount of power, he succeeded in diminishing the fire, alerting the archangel that the protection was disappearing. For a second, she turned to strengthen the barrier, ignoring Sam and Dean’s warning calls as she battled Samael’s power and rekindled the fire ring around the boys.

Next thing she knew, Auriel felt a sharp object piercing through her ribs and digging at her Grace – the angel blade that the demon had stabbed into her back. The archangel screamed and the fire went out, freeing the Winchesters and shocking Samael, making him turn to face Auriel on the ground and the demon standing over her with the angel blade drenched in blood in her hand. He didn’t need to think twice before he twisted his hand and snapped the woman’s neck, killing the demon as well. Samael fled from the location, leaving behind a flutter of wings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you for all the kudos and comments! (I feel like I can never truly thank you enough, but I try my best)  
> If there's any aspect that you feel like I should focus on, because you don't understand the context or simply because you think it would improve the story, don't shy away from telling me, please!! x


	10. Chapter 10

Lucifer stared out the window of the Victorian house he was staying in. It was unoccupied and located in a small town. He saw the sheep herding in the wasteland across the street and an elderly lady reaping the taller grass in the back of the terrain. He took a deep breath before turning around and facing Samael.

‘She’s hurt,’ he repeated the news that the angel had brought him, ‘How bad?’

‘Pretty bad,’ Samael answered.

Lucifer nodded, pacing across the room, ‘And you didn’t heal her?’

The angel hesitated in his reply, ‘No.’

‘Tell me,’ Lucifer stopped and looked at Samael, crossing his arms, ‘This… plan of yours. What were you trying to accomplish? I believe it was something along the lines of bringing Sam to me, willing to say yes. It sounded great, I actually believed you could pull it off…’ he paused, looking back at the window outside, ‘But all it did was hurt Auriel and you, so bravely, left.’

The temperature in the room had dropped drastically. Lucifer’s hostility didn’t go unnoticed by Samael, but he would stand his ground. Auriel’s words echoed in his mind, irritating him and motivating him to fight back.

‘I wasn’t doing it for you. I couldn’t care less about that goddamn hunter and the fact that you can’t trick him into saying yes to you,’ Samael spat, feeling like he was walking on thin ice, ‘Your _pet_ _angel_ double-crossed me and I went to collect what’s mine. It isn’t my fault that she got hurt. It serves her right for standing in my way, though.’

‘It’s always about pride isn’t it?’ Lucifer whispered harshly, turning back to look at Samael, ‘You little fucker couldn’t take the fact that she _outsmarted_ you and had to get your revenge.’

‘If you care about her that much, then why don’t you go and meet with her for once?’ Samael challenged, ‘I’m not your courier.’

‘What’s this? Have I finally met an opponent up to my standards?’ Lucifer laughed bitterly.

‘We got it… Big, bad Lucifer,’ Samael digressed, ‘No one can stop him, no one can put him in the corner or else he’ll mop about it and go on a secret hideout whilst maintaining the terror on Earth through his little minions to whom he assigns _missions_. Look at you,’ he motioned towards the archangel in front of him, ‘You’ve grown soft. You can’t even get your vessel to accept you, for fuck’s sake. I’m not a part of this… _realm_ of yours, I’m not bound to your commands.’

Lucifer listened intently, nodding here and there, and let out a hearty laugh when Samael finished, ‘Get out.’

The angel did as he was told, acting against his own words, missing the look on Lucifer’s face resulting from his speech. Lucifer turned back towards the window, gritting his teeth as he watched the woman and the herd of sheep outside.

Within seconds the woman and the sheep fell to the ground, their corpses laying lifeless on the green grass.

 

* * *

 

Sam replayed the moment in his mind over and over again. The moment when he saw Auriel falling to the ground with blood staining her shirt. He had run to her and when their eyes met, he knew something wasn’t right. She wasn’t okay and he didn’t like the thought of Auriel not being okay. Sam hated seeing her in this condition: it was something so unlike her, to be powered down by some lousy demon. The angel blade hadn’t killed her – _thankfully_ – but, according to Cass, it had caused great damage. Since she was trying to protect him and his brother, a good amount of her power was focused on supporting the fire ring, which meant she was weakened by the amount of strength it took to fight Samael. It explained why she hadn’t been able to heal herself, leaving the task up to Castiel who did the best he could, even though healing an archangel from such a deep lesion could take its toll on an angel. So far, he’d managed to get the bleeding to stop and the brothers had patched up the cut to prevent any more bleeding, before Cass healed her again. The angel had been left out of the event due to the sigils that had appeared all over the Bunker’s walls after Auriel had abandoned them and that kept Castiel inside throughout the entire time. When Samael left, the sigils disappeared from the walls.

Auriel was lying on top of Sam’s bed covers as he sat on the chair next to his makeshift desk thinking about what had just happened. She was awake, but kept her talking to a minimum and only moved when she wanted to check if she was strong enough to heal herself completely – which was often. Auriel was about to press her hand over her bandages again when Sam spoke up, ‘You should leave it and rest. It’ll help you recover.’

She sighed, her chest expanding at the movement and catching Sam’s eye. He hadn’t forgotten about the fact that Auriel had to remove her shirt for Cass to heal her, leaving her in her white bra, but that wasn’t what was filling his mind at the moment.

‘I hate demons,’ Auriel spoke softly. Sam nodded his head pensively. ‘Lucifer too. This was all his doing,’ she continued mumbling words at the ceiling, ‘I’m not going to let him get to you, Sam.’

‘Auriel,’ Sam addressed,’ You’ve done so much to protect me and I appreciate it, of course, but I’m fine on my own. I can take care of myself, that’s not your job to keep making sure I come out perfectly fine after a confrontation. It’s not why we asked for your help,’ he paused, letting her assess his words, ‘You need to look after yourself. It seems like Lucifer gets to you more than he does to me.’

‘You and your brother handled them better than I did,’ she laughed, turning the conversation back to the demons, ‘It’s just that I can’t help but feel overprotective towards you. I don’t know what it is, Sam, but I don’t feel the extensive need to protect Dean at all costs… Even though I don’t want anything to happen to him, it’s different with you.’

Sam understood what she was saying, because he felt it too. The uncontrollable desire to keep her safe from harm that he couldn’t wrap his head around. He looked at her serene face, wondering why he felt so confused towards her. He had never doubted about his feelings towards a girl: he either liked them enough to be in a relationship with them or liked them enough for one night. Other than that, he liked women as his friends, but he couldn’t place Auriel in one of those categories, just yet. He didn’t know if it was because of the obvious differences between them or the fact that he couldn’t understand what his heart was trying to tell his brain, but, right now, Auriel oscillated between being a friend and a love interest.

‘You know,’ Auriel began, sitting up in the bed, ‘Sometimes it’s really hard to keep out of your minds. Specially in moments like these, when you look so pensive.’

Sam widened his eyes at her words and she grinned at him, ‘Was it bad?’

‘You were reading my mind?’

‘No,’ she assured him, ‘I only do it in moments of extreme need… Like the other day, Dean tried to give me some sort of signal as I passed him in the hallway and I read his mind to understand what he was trying to say.’

‘What was it?’ Sam quirked his eyebrow in curiosity.

‘Something that I shouldn’t have seen. He has a very creative imagination, let me tell you, Samuel.’

‘I’d rather not know,’ Sam shifted in his chair, scoffing.

Auriel’s grin grew wider at Sam’s discomfort. She was starting to feel like herself again so she tried to heal her wound again. A very dim light shined from her hand and onto the bandages, but it wasn’t enough to cure it. She let out a deep breath and looked back at the hunter hunched over himself, with his elbows on his knees.

There was a knock on the door before Dean stepped in the room with Castiel trailing right behind him.

‘How’re you feeling?’ he asked Auriel, genuine concern on his face.

‘Better,’ she replied as Castiel approached her and reached out his hand to heal her.

‘Sammy,’ Dean murmured towards his brother, tilting his head towards the door and motioning for him to follow.

 

‘What is it?’ Sam asked, crossing his arms over his plaid shirt.

‘That thing with Samael or whatever his name is,’ Dean said, ‘Have you thought about what would've happen if she hadn’t been there? We need to get to Lucifer as soon as we can and get him in that squared box forever. This isn’t our typical day at the office… which on a good day already isn’t a typical day at the office.’

‘I know,’ the younger Winchester sighed, ‘We’re working on it. We’ll find him, don’t worry.’

‘I do worry, Sam. You should stick to research and let us do the job-…’

‘Us? You and Auriel?’

‘And Cass,’ Dean added, interrupting his brother, ‘Yes, Sam. It’s you he’s after. You’re more effective in the library work than on the field-…’

‘What does that mean?’ Sam furrowed his brows at Dean, outraged by the insults at his hunting skills.

‘You might get distracted! That’s all I’m saying,’ Dean argued, ‘They won’t have us to use against each other and since you spend 90% of your time fawning over Auriel, it won’t make much difference.’

Sam flipped his middle finger at his brother and started walking back towards his room. Dean howled with laughter at his brother’s reaction, ‘Mature, Sam. That convinced me otherwise.’

‘I’m going wherever you’re going, regardless of it being related to Lucifer or not,’ Sam warned.

‘As you wish,’ Dean lifted both his hands in a sign of defeat.

Sam’s phone vibrated in his pocket and he reached for it, stepping aside from the door to allow Castiel to exit the room.

‘Is it better?’ Dean approached the angel who was rolling his sleeves down.

‘I think she’ll be able to finish the healing process by herself. I reduced it to a scar that should go away once she is fully in control of her powers again.’

The green-eyed hunter patted the angel in his back as a thank you gesture. Sam checked the notification that had popped up from a news alert he had on his phone and read the bits of the article that he found important, ‘A woman and her 7 sheep were found dead, earlier this afternoon… Possible heart attack, still not confirmed… poisoned grass…’

‘Freaky death?’ Dean inquired, setting his hands on his hips.

‘Seems like it,’ Sam kept reading the article, trying to figure out if it was a possible case or just a weird coincidence, ‘The grass had been sulphated the day before, but there were no signs on display to warn the locals. The coroner is pointing towards a heart attack… It might not be our thing.’

‘You’re right. Just a bad day for the lady and the ewes.’

‘I like sheep,’ Castiel frowned slightly at the news, ‘Their wool is soft and they are usually very kind.’

‘You’ve talked to sheep before?’ Dean turned to look at him, squinting his eyes.

‘Yes,’ Cass replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world, looking a bit surprised that Dean had never contacted with the animal.

Sam looked back and forth between them, deciding that this was a discussion he didn’t want to be a part of and turned around, heading into his room. Auriel sat at the edge of his bed, her legs dangling off the side. She looked up when she saw him and stood up to walk towards him. The light coming from his bedside table and the Bunker’s hallway shined against her skin, designing patterns on it that made Sam want to reach out and feel her skin on his fingertips. He swallowed and controlled his _unnecessary_ impulse.

‘I need something to wear,’ Auriel uttered.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before realizing he didn’t have anything to say. Sam went to his dresser and fished around for a shirt, grabbing a white V-neck that would undoubtedly be too big for her.  

‘Here,’ he offered and she took it. A rush of possessiveness overcame him once he thought about Auriel wearing his shirt. It felt much better than seeing her wearing his brother’s shirt.

‘Thank you,’ she looked at herself and how the clothing fell on her; it was oversized, but it smelled like Sam and something about that made Auriel want to get closer to the hunter. So, she did, taking light steps towards him until she stood at an acceptable distance from him, ‘You are very handsome.’

She meant it not only about his physical aspect, but also regarding his soul. The latter shined with a mellow lustre that was so appealing to her because of its contrast with her own Grace. Her Grace glowed with the intensity of a roaring fire in display of her character, of who she was. The difference between the two of them would offer the perfect balance that Auriel needed to keep Sam protected at all times, whether she was beside him or not, just as long as she was alive.

Sam felt flattered by the complement, especially given the fact that it had come from an angel and he felt the need to retribute – not that he was going to say something that he didn’t stand by, ‘You are very beautiful yourself.’

‘No,’ she smirked, ‘You think my _vessel_ is beautiful. You’ve never seen the real me.’

‘My opinion still stands,’ Sam wanted to reach out and touch her in some way, but he couldn’t bring his muscles to do anything other than stuff his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

Auriel assessed his face for a few moments before stepping back and setting her hand over her bruise. This time being able to heal herself completely and eliminating any evidence of the previous occurrence.

‘You did it…’, Sam’s eyes widened at the archangel, ‘That means you’re recovered?’

‘For now, at least,’ she replied, looking at her hands and arms.

‘I’m glad to hear that,’ Castiel walked into the room, a heavy look on his face that contrasted with his statement.

‘What’s wrong?’ Sam asked, furrowing his brows at the way Castiel was squinting his eyes as if focusing on something else.

‘It’s…’ Cass looked between Sam and Auriel, ‘Angel radio. There’s been a lot of buzz going on about Auriel.’

‘Good or bad?’ Sam inquired.

The angel tilted his head slightly, ‘They’re intrigued… They seem confused about her existence and about the latest happenings.’

‘Understandably so,’ Auriel joined the conversation, stepping away from Sam, ‘Should I meet with them?’

‘No,’ Sam replied at the same time as the angel gave an affirmative answer.

‘Dean thinks we should go talk to them to clear their doubts and let them know Auriel is on their side. Maybe they’ll agree to help us,’ Castiel cleared.

‘Or they’ll be pissed off,’ Sam countered, crossing his arms over his chest, ‘Where is Dean, anyway?’

‘He’s on the phone with a hunter,’ Cass dismissed, ‘We should go. We have the same purpose and if they don’t join us, they won’t stop us from doing our jobs.’

‘You’re right. We’ll go and see what they’re talking about,’ Auriel decided, ignoring the heavy sigh that Sam let out, ‘If Lucifer can have his punk demons chasing after us, then we have the right to call the cavalry.’

 

* * *

 

Castiel and Auriel had left the Bunker to meet up with the squad of angels that Castiel had heard over the angel radio manifesting their curiosity towards Auriel. They were gathered in a white villa, surrounded by vineyards where workers could be seen tending to the vines. There was a large fountain in front of the house with a statue of a chubby cupid in the centre that had water pouring out of the tip of his bow. Auriel looked at it in irony, snorting to herself at the picture that humans had of what the cherubs looked like. They walked past the open front doors and into the inside of the house with high ceilings and a mighty staircase just down the hall.

‘What is this place?’ Auriel asked in a murmur.

‘Seems like they’re taking over this… country house,’ Castiel replied, trying to find any of the angels. Now that they had arrived the angel radio had calmed down, reduced to a buzz inside Castiel’s head.

They kept walking through the corridor until they found two large glass doors that lead them to the backyard where a golf course was situated. There were some people on the course as well as a few golf carts moving along the green peneplanes. One of the figures noticed their presence and started walking towards them. He was dressed in a light blue polo that contrasted with his sandy blonde hair and beige pants whilst holding a golf club in his gloved hand.

‘That’s Ephraim,’ Castiel whispered to the archangel standing next to him, as they watched the Rit Zien getting closer.

Auriel straightened up when the angel reached them, smiling widely. He rested the club on the ground, supporting his hands on its handle, ‘What a pleasure to have you two here, brothers.’

Auriel and Castiel eyed the angel in front of them as if he had just declared war on them. Ephraim shifted his eyes towards Auriel, looking her up and down before placing his club over his left shoulder, ‘We thought you were dead.’

‘I’m not,’ Auriel responded, ‘Clearly.’

‘Indeed,’ Ephraim commented, ‘I assume you found us through our conversations about Auriel.’

None of them replied, making Ephraim chuckle lightly and place the club back on the ground, ‘I see… I should warn the others and we can have a proper conversation about what you intend to do regarding Lucifer.’

He bowed before walking inside the villa, leaving both angels behind. Auriel was excited to meet new angels since she hadn’t had a chance to do so in the past, but she was still on the lookout for any signs that showed that these weren’t very trustworthy angels. She turned to follow the angel with Castiel walking alongside her.

They found Ephraim in a room designed to be a ballroom. The walls were decked in shades of gold and there was an immense fireplace across the room with sculptures of lions engraved in the marble mantel.

‘How’d they get a place like this?’ Auriel whispered getting a shrug from Castiel who too was mesmerized looking around the room. More angels came to join them – some Rit Ziens like Ephraim, a couple of angels and even a few cherubs – standing behind Ephraim, highlighting him as their leader.

‘We heard about the demons and Samael and hope you’ve recovered well,’ Ephraim spoke with his hands clasped in front of him, ‘Fortunately, our brother Castiel was by your side.’

Auriel frowned, ‘How do you know all this? How do you even know who I am?’

Next to her, Castiel also felt intrigued by this group of angels. They seemed to have information on everything that had happened and to be on good terms with him – last time he checked, most of the angels still resented being expelled from Heaven, but it didn’t seem to be the case for this squad.

‘Allow me to explain,’ Ephraim stepped forward, ‘We are what’s left of Gabriel’s garrison. We joined his side when we fell and have been following his orders since then. He told us everything about you and we want to help. We’re your backup for the confrontation with Lucifer.’

‘What?... You said… Gabriel’s garrison?’ Auriel babbled on as Ephraim and most of the angels nodded, ‘But… You’re following his orders. Does that mean he’s alive?’

‘Unfortunately, no. His orders were to support you through and through, so that’s what we’re going to do.’

She looked at Castiel for some advice. The angel took charge of the conversation, ‘If you want to help, we won’t deny it. We’re going to need all the help we can get, but you must be prepared to face the possibility of losing more members of your garrison.’

‘We are aware,’ Ephraim said, ‘It’s not our first confrontation.’

Auriel felt the fire within her come to life. She felt confident to have Gabriel’s soldiers supporting her in this task. It was the closest she could get to having actual support from the archangels that offered a possibility to fight the obstacles on the way to Lucifer.

‘We need more angels,’ she spoke up, walking towards the group, ‘Recruit them and prepare them. As many as you can get, the more the merrier.’ Auriel looked over her shoulder at Castiel, flashing him a brief smile before turning back to face Ephraim, ‘We were created to protect the greater good and in order to do so, Lucifer must be stopped.’

 

* * *

 

‘He looked into it and apparently both the woman and the sheep’s insides were scorched. Obviously, the police department decided to not spread out the good news,’ Dean sipped on his beer, keeping his voice hushed so that the other people at the bar couldn’t hear their conversation.

‘So it was a case,’ Sam leaned back against the chair he was sitting on, ‘I can’t believe we ignored it.’

‘No point on crying over spilt milk,’ Dean replied, tipping the beer at his brother, his focus set on the pool table across the room, ‘I heard you and Auriel this afternoon.’ The younger hunter tilted his head questioning his brother about what he meant, ‘You were having a lovely moment back there. I thought you were finally getting out of that dry spell of yours…’

‘Dude, that’s weird. Stop listening to my conversations.’

‘Oh,’ Dean leaned forward, a mocking grin on his face, ‘If you wanted to keep it private, you should’ve closed the door.’

‘You shouldn’t have listened in the first place,’ Sam spat, ‘Whatever…’

‘Yes, change the subject. Classic, Sammy.’

‘Have you heard from them?’

‘Nope,’ Dean sipped on his beer, turning back to look at the group of drunks approaching the pool table, ‘See if you can talk to them, I’m going to earn us some lunch money.’

Sam looked back at the table, shaking his head disapprovingly at his brother as he faked a drunken state and approached the group. The tallest Winchester stood up and walked outside the bar where it was quieter, heading across the street to lean against the passenger door of the Impala as he called Cass.

He rolled his eyes when it went to voicemail, ‘Hey, Cass. We haven’t heard from you in a while, call us when you get this.’ Sam hung up and put his phone back in his jacket’s pocket. When he looked up, he saw the reflection on the store window in front of him and to his surprise, there was someone standing on the other side of the Impala, staring back at him. Sam immediately straightened up, his hand reaching for his gun as he turned around to face the suspect. There was no one there, but Sam could’ve sworn he had seen someone in the window’s reflection. He took out his gun, looking at the bar and at both sides of the sidewalk, until he turned back around and came face to face with Lucifer standing in front of the showcase.

Lucifer stared back at him with a defying smirk, ‘Hiya, Sammy.’


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence up ahead, proceed with caution if that's something that you don't fancy.
> 
> [Edit: I just now realized that apparently the guy I had envisioned for Samael is a part of the 'Sahdowhunters' cast - Dominic Sherwood.]

_Auriel wept quietly as she trailed behind Michael’s taller figure through the halls of Heaven. He was taking her to unfamiliar grounds, the place where the eldest archangels spent most of their time, to meet with Raphael and Gabriel. She wanted nothing more than to run away, but Michael’s Grace kept her in place and forced her to face the consequences of her acts. He had been silent through the entire journey, but she would prefer him to yell at her than to ignore her like the way he was doing. The disappointment and anger were clear in Michael’s aura, combined with sadness and grief that spurred Auriel’s silent crying. She was still wearing the blood-stained dress, the ever-present reminder of what she had done, that drew the attention of the other archangels when they entered the secluded room situated in the depths of Heaven._

_The doors shut behind her and she stopped before the formidable table where Gabriel sat opposite to Raphael. Michael moved to stand at the head of the table facing Auriel and silently commanded her to sit directly across from him, occupying the end of the table. The other eight chairs were left unoccupied which heightened the seriousness of the matter. Auriel had stopped her crying, but the tears still stained her face as she didn’t wipe them off. She was going to face whatever they would decide for her and she was going to do it bravely._

_Michael took in a deep breath before looking up at Auriel and speaking in a calm tone, “We’re going to give you an opportunity to explain yourself. Don’t get side-tracked with unimportant details and only reveal what you find to be of extreme significance. That is, if you choose to disclose any of the reasons why you did it,” he paused, looking between his bothers, “We all agree that it wasn’t a completely arbitrary act, due to it being so out of character when it comes to you. You, Auriel, who always had shown great interest in the planet and now in its inhabitants, certainly wouldn’t commit such atrocity.”_

_He gestured for her to talk, so she straightened up and gathered her thoughts as neatly as possible. She had rehearsed this moment over and over in her head, but now, standing under the three archangels’ intense gaze, it seemed like all the words were slipping out of her mind and leaving behind a blank canvas. The angel felt conflicted: the vindictive side of her wanted to tell it all like it was, expose Lucifer and what he had planned, but the rational side of her knew that meant exposing herself as well and reveal to the archangels what she had been doing behind their back, disobeying their orders and actively seeking out Lucifer to help him in his evil doings. They were giving her a chance to clarify what had led her to murder all those humans, to tell her side of the story, perhaps because they already knew an alternative version and any incoherency with Auriel’s story would only add fuel to the fire._

_“I didn’t know I was killing humans. I thought they were…” Auriel paused, searching for the right words._

_“Start by telling us why you were on Earth after you were strictly forbidden to go there. More than once, might I add,” Raphael’s tone was also calm, but it made Auriel shiver in her seat._

_She closed her eyes, letting out a shaky breath before speaking up again, “I went there to visit Lucifer. Like all the other times I left Heaven, I went to Earth to see him in Hell. He created an… army, if you could call it that, of corrupted souls that have recently started taking the shape of humans. He calls them de-…”_

_“Demons,” Michael interrupted her, “We are aware of Lucifer’s recent activity.”_

_She blinked several times before continuing, “I thought I was killing demons, but it turned out to be a vision that Lucifer had planted on my mind and when I realized it was already too late,” the sorrow could be heard in her voice._

_“Why did you visit him?” Michael inquired, leaning back on his chair._

_Auriel stayed silent for a while. If they knew about demons and Hell, they must know about her association with the place. Lying wasn’t even an option anymore. “Mostly to talk. He would assign me a few simple tasks, but it wasn’t often. He said I was too innocent for the job.”_

_“_ Custodes Portas Infernus _,” Raphael punctuated each word launched at the air with bitterness, “You weren’t too innocent for that, were you?”_

_“I… It’s nothing important, I have never…”_

_“Nothing important?” Michael repeated, his voice starting to lose the soothing connotation it previously had, “He made you into the literal key to Hell and you don’t make a big deal out of it? You’re so blinded by the chance of being in his good graces and the centre of his attention, that you don’t realize what he’s done to you. He manipulated you into a vicious creature predisposed to ask how high when he says jump. Making you into his personal toy to play with and watch how you reacted perfectly to his every twisted fantasy. You’re marked forever with the blood of the humans and the souls that you helped destroy. You’re a menace, Auriel. To yourself and to everyone around you.”_

_“Michael,” Gabriel spoke up for the first time, “She was tricked into doing all those things. You know how manipulative Lucifer can be.”_

_“What’s your suggestion, little brother?”_

_Gabriel and Michael stared at each other for a few seconds before Gabriel lost his composure and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, “I don’t stand by your solution. Auriel is our creation, if she’s flawed it’s because we failed. She’s not the only one to blame for her mistakes. We were the ones in charge of moulding her to be the greatest warrior Heaven had ever seen, her deviation is upon us as well.”_

_“You always insisted on giving her freedom and allowing her to do as she pleased,” Raphael joined the argument where Auriel was the only one not contributing._

_“Keeping her locked in Heaven didn’t seem to be a better solution, it only spiked her to go against what we told her. As much as it kills you to be reminded, my dear brother, Lucifer and I also played a role in her bringing into existence and as you know, we’re not ones to stick by the rules.”_

_“She’s lucky we allow her to continue breathing…”_

_“Raphael, that’s enough,” Michael interfered, giving his brother a severe look._

_Auriel lowered her gaze at her lap, pushing back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She wasn’t crying about what could happen to her, but at the division she had caused between the archangels and the arguments that had emerged from it. She only raised her eyes back at Michael when he called her name._

_“We had previously decided that you need to be withdrawn from the community of angels,” Michael calmly spoke, “It was either expelling you out of Heaven or lock you away. Since the first would only push you even further into Lucifer’s domain, we went for the latter. Like Gabriel said, you’re still our creation. The last thing we want is for you to end up hurting yourself.”_

_“I’m not going to be a part of this,” Gabriel stood up and walked towards the door, stopping to look back at his brothers, “One day, you’ll regret your decision. You know as well as I do that if there’s anyone who can stop him, it’s her.”_

_Auriel’s eyes widened and her breathing got faster at both Gabriel’s words and him leaving her with the two older archangels. She felt a new wave of tears prickling at her eyes and did her best to fight them back, trying to stay calm and composed in front of Michael and Raphael._

_Michael signalled his brother to exit the room and stood up once he was alone with Auriel, coming to stand next to her which prompted the angel to get on her feet. He watched her face briefly before speaking in a hushed tone, “This is for your best. I’m sorry, Auriel.”_

_He reached out for her arm and the next thing she knew they were standing next to Raphael in front of a small pedestal with a silver bowl on top. Michael held out her arm and Raphael made a small cut on the inside of her forearm with a dagger, allowing a tiny amount of her Grace to slip out and onto the bowl. The wound quickly healed itself and Auriel watched as Michael and Raphael did the same, allowing the glowing substances to mix inside the bowl. Then, Michael held out Auriel’s hand palm side up for Raphael to make another incision with the dagger, this time blood spilling out of it and adding a splash of red to the bowl’s contents._

_A line of fire started etching itself on the wall in front of them, giving way to an open door. Auriel felt as if invisible strings were pulling her towards the entrance with more intensity as she got closer to it. She didn’t fight it – couldn’t fight it; trying to use her powers to get away from the mysterious door was useless and she eventually ended up stepping inside the new compartment. It seemed infinite: all in white with no walls to delimit the space and completely quiet. The line of fire behind her started closing in on itself, separating her from the archangels that stood on the other side and efficiently isolating her from the rest of the world._

 

* * *

 

 

‘Lucifer…’ Sam inhaled deeply, staring at the shining red orbs in front of him that belonged to none other than the devil himself. Here he was again, between the devil and danger. After spending all this time trying to find him, Sam didn’t feel prepared to face him right now, alone and without means of self-defence. He doubted for a split second if it really was him on the flesh or if it was a product of his imagination, which made the hunter flinch in memory of the days when Lucifer haunted him that drove him to the brink of insanity. He didn’t have his old method to bring him back down to Earth and prove that what he was seeing wasn’t real, even though it wouldn’t be necessary because he could _feel_ his presence and energy surrounding him.

‘You look good, Sam,’ Lucifer pointed out, eyeing Sam up and down, ‘Preparing yourself for me?’

Sam cringed at the words which spurred Lucifer to go on, stepping out of the shadow of the building and onto the streetlight where Sam could see that he was in fact real, ‘I’ve been laying low and giving you some space to practice on the intonation you’re going to use when you say “yes”.’

‘I’m never going to say yes to you,’ Sam corrected.

‘We’ve all heard that before and it didn’t turn out quite like that, did it?’ Lucifer tilted his head at Sam, smirking, ‘I’m not here to continue with this quarrel we have going on. When the time comes, you’ll say yes. I’m not worried.’

‘You and I have nothing to talk about,’ Sam insisted.

‘We don’t?’ the archangel leaned against the streetlamp, feigning indifference as he proceeded, ‘I know what goes on inside that little brain of yours, Sam. You expected me to be oblivious about the fact that Auriel has been staying with you?’

‘No. Your friend made sure we realized that you were the reason behind all these petty schemes and the spell that summoned Auriel.’

Lucifer pursed out his bottom lip, nodding impressed, ‘I have to own up to my _brilliant_ plans, but you didn’t answer me. She’s been staying with you… and your brother, who she doesn’t seem to care so much for as she does for you. Isn’t it such a crazy coincidence that she just _naturally_ tends to lean more towards you? What do you say, Sam? You think the _pretty_ and _naïve_ angel has a crush on you?’

He didn’t reply, not wanting to play Lucifer’s game. He was trying to manipulate him and make him give in to his own desires, but Sam would have none of that.

‘Come on, Sam. Don’t be such a bore,’ Lucifer leaned away from the lamp, walking closer to Sam, ‘I’m genuinely interested in knowing what are your intentions towards her. I created her, did she tell you that? Did she tell you about her crazy life? Did she, Sam? I _know_ she didn’t tell you about the manslaughter and her slightly disturbed character. Oh, let’s not forget what a _backstabbing little bitch_ she is, but I’m sure you knew that.’

‘What are you talking about?’ the Winchester couldn’t help but feel intrigued at what Lucifer was saying about Auriel. He knew it could all be a lie – most likely _were_ lies – but his curiosity got the best of him.

‘Ah, so you don’t know!’ Lucifer exclaimed, delighted, ‘Let me tell you: Auriel had this little incident with a few dozen humans and my _terrific_ brothers decided she should be locked up. That’s where she spent most part of her life until you released her from her own Cage. Of course, she had to throw me under the bus before getting her sentence, but she’ll pay for it eventually.’

Sam had had enough, ‘What do you want with this?’

‘To let you know that she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’ Lucifer whispered menacingly, getting closer to the hunter, ‘You’re not special. You’re expendable to me and you’re making me waste my time,’ he reached out to wrap his hand around Sam’s throat and press against his breathing channels, cutting off the air circulation to the hunter’s brain, ‘You know, Sam, if you don’t want to accept me, it’s fine. I have other methods to obtain my way in. You’ll see what I mean sooner than you think. Now, get this straight, because I’m not going to repeat myself. You will say yes until midnight or else what you have all been fearing until this point, humanity’s downfall, will start with you and your brother. You’ve been saying that the end is near, guess what? The end’s already here.’

Sam registered his words although his brain was fast losing focus and his eyelids felt too heavy to keep them open. He mustered up the necessary strength to mumble, ‘Fuck you.’

Lucifer let out a short laugh, pressing further into Sam’s throat and effectively cutting off any air circulation, making Sam double his efforts at attempting to remove Lucifer’s hand from his neck which only added up to his shortage of breath. He saw the world getting darker and fought to keep his eyes opened, but it was all in vain. Lucifer withdrew his hand away, allowing Sam’s unconscious body to slump against the Impala’s passenger door onto the ground and moved to snap his fingers, returning to the Victorian house.

 

‘That will be… 317 bucks you owe me,’ Dean nonchalantly told the drunk man he had just defeated at snooker. The game had been easier than what Dean expected and granted him a good stash of bills that were stacked on the edge of the pool table. He reached out to collect his prize, pocketing the bills and turned around to face a very angry mid 40’s man with the most athletic dad body Dean had ever seen, ‘I want my money back, you goddamn swindler.’

‘Watch your mouth,’ Dean warned, pointing a finger at the man, ‘I played fair, you were the one who suggested we bet on it. If you’re not happy, you can go cry to you buddy over there.’

The man made a move to punch Dean’s jaw, but the hunter was faster and grabbed the man’s forearm, twisting it behind his back and making the man huff in frustration, ‘Easy there, tiger. You might end up hurting yourself.’

After he made sure that the man had gotten the message, Dean let go of his arm, picked up his jacket from the table where he previously sat and strutted out of the bar headed for his Baby, parked across the street. Seeing it empty made Dean question himself of his brother’s whereabouts. Sam had gone outside to call Cass and didn’t return to the bar, but he wasn’t in the car either – maybe he had run off with some chick (no, that didn’t sound like Sam) or something bad had happened. Dean felt his pockets in search for his phone, remembering he had left it in his jacket and dialed Sam’s number. He listened as a phone started ringing somewhere nearby and moved towards the sound until he reached the sidewalk and saw his brother sitting limply against the car.

‘Sammy,’ Dean urged, kneeling next to his brother and pulling him up to rest properly against the shiny black door. Sam seemed out of it, but Dean kept repeating his name as he inspected his body in search for any wound or a sign of what had happened to him. In the poorly lit street it was hard to see anything and Dean was struggling to find something that would tell him what was the next thing to do, which left him desperately calling out Sam’s name and slapping his cheek repeatedly, ‘Hey, hey, Sam… You’re alright,’ he murmured when Sam started slowly blinking followed by a cough attack, more to assure himself of it than to inform his brother of his condition, ‘You’re okay.’

 

* * *

 

 

Ephraim filled Castiel’s flute for the third time, getting a thankful smile from the angel and turned to fill Auriel’s glass, but the archangel covered the top of it with her hand, denying the offer with a polite smile, ‘No more for me, thank you.’

She turned back to Castiel after Ephraim returned to his seat on the white couch in the villa’s back porch, grinning as he downed a generous amount of the champagne that was served. It was produced in the vineyards in front of the house, according to Ephraim’s story, named after Gabriel and it had an amazing flavour that made you want to go back for more, but it also had a _kick_ that made the angel’s mind swim with bright colours – it was just like Gabe. They were offered a few bottles to take with them that they had to keep out of the Winchesters’ reach, because even the smallest sip could intoxicate a human. Auriel had a glass of champagne and her mind was still fuzzy with the vibrations and changing of colours, she could only imagine how the angel sitting next to her felt.

They had spent the afternoon getting to know the garrison, listening to all the stories and the plans they had to deal with Lucifer, complementing and improving them the way they felt was better without disclosing too much information about what they had been doing or intended to do regarding Lucifer, but now it was time to leave. Even though Auriel felt happy being surrounded by the group – a little taste of what she could’ve had in the past – she felt like something wasn’t right. She nudged Castiel, signalling that it was time for them to leave and got a wide smile in response. After announcing that they were leaving and encouraging them to call whenever they had news or needed help, Auriel held Castiel’s hand and brought them back to the Bunker.

They were just outside the metal door when Cass felt giddy and felt the need to hold Auriel’s hand tighter for balance, erupting a small laugh from the archangel, ‘Seems like you had a tad too much of the glittering bubbles.’

‘I’m fine,’ Castiel grunted, slightly offended by Auriel’s knowing smile, letting go of her hand and reaching for the door handle.

She hummed in response as she watched him enter the building, being quick to follow before the door slammed behind them. Auriel set down the champagne bottles on top of the map table, looking around to find the Winchesters, but without success. Castiel took a seat at the table, leaning his head back with his eyes closed, uttering, ‘Get those bottles away from me.’

Auriel laughed to herself and picked them back up, heading for the hallway where she bumped into a sturdy body and instantly felt a pair of hands on her arms steadying her. She knew it was Dean before she looked into his eyes – he seemed very concerned.

‘Where have you been? I’ve been calling you two like crazy, I even pray-… Cass?’ Dean’s concern grew when he saw the angel sitting at the table with his head thrown back, ‘Is he okay?’ he turned back to Auriel when the angel didn’t make a move to acknowledge his presence.

‘He is,’ she replied, ‘You should let him be, he had too much champagne.’

Dean furrowed his eyebrows at her, looking back at Cass whose mouth was now slightly opened. The hunter shut his eyes for a few seconds, deciding that he would get his answers as to why Castiel was drunk later. Now it was time to focus on Sam.

‘Auriel,’ he urged and she turned around to face him, stopping her journey towards the room she had grown accustomed to frequent, ‘It's Sam. Lucifer got to him and I need you to talk to him. He’s hurt and he's been babbling on about midnight. Whatever happens then, we don’t have much time to figure it out…’

‘Lucifer?’ Auriel repeated, her eyes wide, ‘Where’s Sam?’

‘Bedroom,’ Dean pointed, following the archangel’s fast pace, glimpsing over his shoulder at Cass who was still in the same position.

 

Auriel felt her shoulders slump when she entered Sam’s bedroom, seeing him in his bed with deep bruises around his neck that she assumed were the outcome of his run in with Lucifer. She set the bottles down on the dresser and sat next to him on the bed where she got a better view of the bruises. Sam’s eyes were alight with joy at the sight of Auriel next to him. He reached out to set his hand on top of her legs, needing to be close to her, but not wanting to be disrespectful. She was wearing different clothes from the ones she had on earlier: a blue loose blouse with black jeans and no signs of his shirt. Sam felt her hand resting on his bicep whilst something warm spread out through him and cleared away the pain coming from his lungs and throat – she had healed him and was now going through his brain in search for the moment when he and Lucifer had faced each other just a couple of hours ago.

The hunter glanced at his bedside clock where it read 11:32pm and closed his eyes as Lucifer’s words sounded in his brain: _The end’s already here_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me hear your thoughts about it!  
> As always, I appreciate every single comment, the kudos and the time you take to read this story !!  
> 


	12. Chapter 12

Dean tapped his fingers rhythmically against the wooden surface of one of the tables in the library. He had his phone sat next to his hand to keep track of the time – now 11:46pm. Castiel was still sitting in the war room with his arms serving as a pillow for his head as he laid down on the table. The hunter sighed looking up at the ceiling when he heard footsteps coming through the hallway. Sam and Auriel appeared shortly after in the room where Castiel was and Dean stood up, getting their attention, ‘What have you got?’

After seeing Sam in his bedroom, Auriel got to know what Lucifer intended to do in case the hunter didn’t accept being his vessel. The threat surprised her – not that she didn’t believe Lucifer wouldn’t do such a thing, but because it didn’t seem like him to not put any effort into getting his vessel’s acceptance and just _blackmail_ Sam to get his consent. Besides, the way he spoke to Sam as if he were easily replaceable didn’t add up for her. Sam was Lucifer’s true vessel, that’s how it was. While possessing Sam, Lucifer would be at full power and he would take over the world in a heartbeat. It was hard enough to find a vessel able to contain him, let alone find one that would fit him the way the youngest Winchester did. Auriel thought it was the oldest trick in the book, an evidence that Lucifer was slacking off.

‘A waste of our time,’ Auriel replied, approaching Castiel and reaching out to get him out of his inebriation. The angel sensed what she was about to do and sat up, pushing her hand away. ‘Cass, it would be better to have you at full capacity and not under the influence.’

‘You really are stubborn,’ Cass squinted at her with a hint of annoyance in his tone, ‘I said I’m fine.’

She crossed her arms, deadpanning at the angel sat in front of her. He huffed before standing up and placing two fingers against her forehead to render her unconscious. Auriel felt a tingly sensation run through her before she grabbed Cass’ arm and pushed it away from her, seizing the opportunity to heal him, watching his jaw tighten with frustration as he realized what she had done.

‘Next time you do that, I’ll send you into another dimension,’ she warned, not being serious about it. She had grown fond of the angel’s company and he was now the closest thing she had to a friend, along with the Winchesters, hence why her warning wasn’t heartfelt.

‘I would love to hear why Cass is… _was_ drunk, but it’s almost midnight and we’re just sitting ducks,’ Dean apprised after checking his phone again – 11:51pm.

‘We’re going to wait it out and see what happens,’ Auriel turned to the Winchester standing on top of the steps that lead into the library.

‘Oh, I see. We’re going to wait for Lucifer to come here and then politely ask him to leave,’ Dean climbed down the steps, ‘We’re not even going to prepare for the chance of getting that son of a bitch inside the Cage?’

‘Have you got any better ideas?’ Auriel voiced.

‘Any idea is better than putting my brother at risk.’

‘Sam is safe. As far as I’m concerned, nothing is going to happen. Lucifer has no way of getting to you, so as long as we don’t fall in his trap we’ll be fine,’ the archangel spoke firmly, ‘I’m tired of this cat and mouse game as much as you are. We won’t give him the satisfaction to continue manipulating us the way he has so far. If he wants to show up, I’ll gladly deal with him.’

Auriel and Castiel’s earlier afternoon with the angel garrison gave her an insight about the archangel’s deaths, which promptly spurred on her fury at Lucifer increased by his attack on Sam. She despised him with every single ounce of her being, forgoing the happy moments and positive aspects she remembered about him and choosing to focus on all the times he had wronged her, throwing her to the wolves. All the anger burning inside of her would prove to be useful when the moment of confrontation came around – she was hoping he _did_ show up tonight so that she could get some sort of vengeance for those he had killed.

‘Call Ephraim and the others,’ she told the angel who had been watching her aura pulse with fierceness, ‘Tell them to patrol the surrounding area and to warn us as soon as they feel something’s coming.’ Castiel nodded and sat back down on the chair, setting his hands on his temples to send the message to the other angels. ‘Thank you,’ Auriel whispered, setting her hand on the angel’s shoulder.

Sam joined his brother’s side as they watched the angels’ exchange of words, confused by the names thrown around, ‘She’s pissed.’

Dean nodded, ‘You agree with this?’

‘Not doing anything?’ Sam mulled it over before replying, ‘I trust her.’

‘Of course, you do,’ Dean closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, ‘I trust her and Cass as well, but Sam, you had a run in with the devil and barely made it out. If he found you back there, he can find you now. Easy as that. Saying we might not stand a chance against him is a hell of an understatement-…’

‘Dude, since when are you afraid of confrontation? Guns blazing, isn’t that what you stand by?’ Sam urged, ‘Are you going to back down now?’

The green-eyed hunter gave his brother a harsh look, his lips sealed in a firm line. He didn’t say anything, because Sam already knew the answer. Dean didn’t fear confrontation – he feared its outcomes. His phone buzzed and a memo popped up on his screen as a sign that it was already midnight. The brothers exchanged a look, before Sam gave Dean a quick nod and retreated to the shelves in the library to grab the books he had selected over the past weeks. Dean sauntered over next to Auriel who looked extremely focused on something that seemed to exist only in her mind, her eyes blankly set on a distant point in front of her, ‘Auriel,’ he called gently, making her turn to focus on him, ‘How did he know where Sam was?’

‘I know you are protected against angels,’ she quickly glanced at his torso covered by a grey shirt and an open green and black flannel, ‘But we can _sense_ our designated vessels if we’re close enough. You could call it some sort of radar that goes off when our one and only vessel is nearby. You two might have been close to him or someone spotted you and set him onto you.’

‘Super…’ Dean muttered sarcastically, setting his hands on his hips, ‘Can’t we ward him against Lucifer? To keep him off his radar, at least?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ Auriel paused, unsure whether she should tell Dean about the bonding process that would keep Sam protected from harm, ‘There might be a way, but now is not the time for that.’

‘What do you mean? If there is a time, this is it,’ Dean flared.

She searched his eyes with her head tilted upwards. They were coloured with intensity and determination alongside a softer tracing of protectiveness – just like it had happened when she had looked into Sam’s eyes, Auriel felt like she was in the presence of one of the archangels, ‘Michael…’

‘What?’

‘You’re Michael’s vessel,’ she said. It was like she was surrounded by her mentors once again: there was Lucifer in the form of Sam, Michael as Dean and Gabriel reflected in Ephraim and his companions. Maybe she would end up meeting someone that would remind her of Raphael.

‘Auriel, Ephraim said someone’s coming,’ Castiel warned.

‘Join them, I’ll be there in a heartbeat,’ she told the angel, offering him a grateful smile before turning to the hunter, ‘Dean, I need you to stay here with Sam…’

‘I’m going out there,’ he replied, not taking any more of her arguments and pulling out his gun from the back of his jeans, before stalking up the Bunker’s staircase. Sam followed his brother, mimicking his actions, leaving Auriel behind in the war room. She sighed, rolling her eyes, before she joined them outside.

 

It was pitch black outside due to the clouds that covered the moon and the starless sky above them. It was also eerily quiet, creating the perfect setting for a chase or a face-off. Next to the Bunker there was a woman, an angel, with short dark hair who signalled for Castiel and Auriel to go into the woods where the intruder was. Sam and Dean followed side by side with the angels, forming a large row where Auriel stood out for being the smallest of them all that treaded through the forest next to the Men of Letter’s Bunker, small twigs and leaves crunching beneath their feet. They moved slowly, looking around to make sure they didn’t have unwanted company and noticing that two other angels had started following them, literally guarding their backs as they walked. The silence and the anticipation left Auriel on edge, quickly searching around for the familiar coldness that usually came with Lucifer’s presence, but so far, everything seemed normal. The temperature tinging the air was what one could call normal for an evening in Kansas. In front of them there was a large oak tree where Ephraim, who had his back turned towards the group, pinned down the intruder with the help of another Rit Zien. The angel’s body didn’t allow them to figure out who it was, but if the angels could hold them down, it certainly wasn’t Lucifer.

‘Ephraim,’ Auriel called, stepping out of the formation to join him. The angel stepped aside, keeping an angel blade pointed at the man’s neck. As she got closer, she recognized it to be Crowley, who looked rather bothered to be caught in such situation. ‘Crowley?’

‘I didn’t know you had bodyguards,’ he mumbled, looking between the Rit Zien’s at his side.

The Winchesters and Castiel let out a frustrated sigh when they approached the tree, lowering their guns as they eyed the King of hell and all the angels that were in the forest and had stepped closer when they arrived.

‘What do you want, Crowley?’ Sam demanded.

‘Well, hello, moose,’ the demon spoke in his usual raspy voice, ‘There’s plenty of things that I want from you, but right now I’d be happy if these two could get their wings away from me.’

‘I don’t see why,’ Dean quirked his eyebrow, ‘You look dashing like that.’

Castiel tilted his head at the hunter’s words, not liking the way he had addressed Crowley, ‘You can let him go,’ he ordered, impatiently.

‘Castiel, this is a demon. We can’t…’

‘Let him go,’ Auriel cut the Rit Zien’s words, speaking curtly. They reluctantly obeyed and Crowley pushed off from the tree, offering her a smirk as he adjusted his tailored suit. ‘Spit it out.’

‘Always so nice… Lucifer went to hell and, rest assured, mayhem broke out,’ Crowley spoke with his hands in his coat’s pockets.

‘He’s in hell?’ Auriel’s eyes narrowed as her mind raced with questions.

‘One of my demons told me he got there after sunset and started making himself cosy. His plan to dethrone me is being put to action, we need to do something to stop him. Need I remind you that if he claims back the throne, we’re worse than dead? All of us!’

‘He’s right,’ Castiel huffed, searching Auriel’s eyes to coerce her into talking, ‘We should so something to prevent it.’

‘What can we do to stop him from taking over what’s his?’ she said, eliciting a surprised look from the brothers, ‘If he wants to take over hell, then let him. As long as he’s busy with something else it buys us time to figure out our game plan.’

‘We could take the opportunity and seal him in his cage,’ Ephraim joined the conversation, ‘He’s already in hell, so we should seize it and lock him up before anything goes wrong.’

‘I’m with the nurse, over there,’ Crowley drawled.

‘Can’t you see it’s a set up? Demons don’t usually roam around hell, at least not the ones that report to Crowley and the ones that do frequent that horrid place wouldn’t go around and boast about Lucifer being back. They’d be dead before they even left the spot. This is what he wants; to lure us into the place where he finds it more suitable to face us,’ Auriel was irritated at the situation and voiced her own thoughts for the group to hear in the hopes that she would be able to convince them that chasing after Lucifer was never a clever idea.

‘So be it,’ Sam punctuated, ‘I think we’re more than ready to take him down. We have to show him we’re not afraid and that we’re not his puppets to string around.’

‘I’m game,’ Dean agreed, ‘Let’s end this once and for all.’

The archangel let out a bitter chuckle, shaking her head at how irrational they were all being. There was no point in sacrificing quality over quantity: sure, they were a lot more than Lucifer, but they wouldn’t stride into hell looking to lock the devil in the cage without a lot of fatalities. It was like walking into the wolf’s den and hoping to come out victorious. If they wanted to do it right, they would have to follow her advice.

‘I want to end this just as badly as you all do. The last thing I want is for him to take over the planet with destruction following his path, but we can’t throw ourselves at him every time we get a chance to do so. We ought to measure our steps and take him by surprise, attack him when he least expects it and succeed by doing so. Isn’t that why I was called here in the first place? To help? Then take my help and listen to what I’m saying. I know him, I know how he works and trust me when I say that him taking over hell is the least of our problems. Nothing changed, he just decided to show himself there in the flesh. All those souls and demons already feared him and anxiously awaited his arrival and now that they have him, what changed? It just brought even more fear and anxiety, because he’s right there and the urge to please him is so great that they wouldn’t dare to step out of line. Considering we’re all still alive and breathing, I’m only guessing he’s not planning to attack us anytime soon,’ she paused to calm herself down, running her hands through her hair, ‘Ephraim, take the others and reinforce the alliance with the angels in heaven. It’s best if you stay there and prepare for battle. Crowley… Do whatever you want. You’re a demon and that word doesn’t even go on my priorities’ list – unless it has the word “kill” attached to it.’

She moved past the brothers and Castiel when the angels and Crowley started retreating from the forest, making her way back towards the Bunker. Her chest heaved with unreleased fury as she walked past the trees and the greenery. Sam called her name, rushing towards her and she felt him getting closer before he fell into step with her. Auriel kept on her way, ignoring the hunter’s persistence in chasing her and constant attempts at getting her attention.

‘Auriel!’ Sam insisted, stopping behind the archangel who took a few more steps before turning towards him, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I thought you were going after Lucifer. You better hurry if you want to catch him before his bedtime,’ she replied bitterly, eyeing Sam up and down.

He frowned not knowing how to react to the rage that Auriel was directing at him, ‘We’re not going after him. We just thought this would be a good opportunity and that we shouldn’t waste it.’

‘Then, by all means, Sam, don’t waste this opportunity,’ she lifted her brows, motioning for him to join his brother and Castiel.

‘Look,’ Sam stepped in her direction, ‘I don’t know where this is coming from, but I’m not the one you’re mad at. We asked for your help, exactly like you said, to follow what you think is best and that’s what we’re going to do now.’

Auriel studied him without offering a reply. The Winchester sighed, running his hand through his hair and bit down on his lower lip to supress the words that he wanted to say. Instead, he looked back at Auriel and watched as she crossed her arms and supported herself on her right leg, sticking out her hip whilst her other foot rested comfortably against the ground. ‘Who were those back there?’

‘Angels,’ she replied with an innocent smile. Sam deadpanned, shoving his hands in his jacket’s pockets. Auriel took a step towards him, ‘They were the ones Cass heard over the angel radio. They are going to help us get support from the other angels, since Cass isn’t exactly welcome in Heaven and I doubt they would spare a second look at me. They think it’s _uncanny_ that I don’t have access to angel radio – their words, not mine.’

Sam let out a light chuckle, ‘Do we trust them?’

She nodded, sticking out her bottom lip and uncrossing her arms to reach out and touch one of the pine trees next to them, feeling the roughness of its skin against her palm. Sam looked over his shoulder, worried about what was taking Cass and Dean so long, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind which brought up a memory from his run-in with the devil, ‘Auriel… Lucifer, back there, he… mentioned something about you being locked before-…’

‘Did he?’ she ventured. How sanctimonious of Lucifer to talk about something indirectly caused by him. ‘It’s true. Michael and Raphael decided I was better off away from everything and that’s where I stayed until you bailed me out. Did he tell you why?’

‘Sort of… Listen, Auriel, I don’t care about what you might’ve done that got you in there. You’ve given me plenty of reasons not to believe any of that is the real you.’

She felt something flip inside her, a soothing sensation that came with Sam’s words of solace. The archangel bit her bottom lip, tentatively taking another step towards the hunter, decreasing the distance between them, ‘I don’t know, Samuel, what if that _is_ the real me?’

He tilted his head slightly to the side with a small smirk hanging from his lips, ‘That’s a risk I’m willing to take.’

Auriel chuckled lowly, looking up into Sam’s eyes. She felt him inching closer and reaching out to cup her face with his considerably large hand. Although being an angel, Auriel was no stranger to human interactions – she had learned a lot from her time on earth, gathering information from the Winchesters, Castiel and from her visits to crowded spaces where she could watch how humans interacted with each other. She had a hunch about what Sam was about to do, but she didn’t stop him from leaning down or herself from tilting her head to the side to give Sam a better access to her lips. The hunter pressed his lips against hers for a second, enough to feel tingles running down his spine, before withdrawing away from her and straightening up to his full height again. Sam held his breath waiting for a reaction from Auriel whose sparkly eyes were still fixed on his lips.

‘I think I want more of that,’ she whispered and reached out to tug onto Sam’s shirt collar, effectively bringing the hunter in for another kiss. This time Sam ventured out and wrapped his arm around Auriel’s waist, pulling her chest closer to his and feeling her hand that was still tugging his shirt dig into his collarbone. It all was forgotten as their lips moved in sync to deepen the kiss until Sam had to pull away to get a lungful of air. The archangel tried to chase after him, standing on her tip-toes to reach higher, but it was worthless – the man was like a goddamn mountain towering over her. He didn’t disappoint her, though, and leaned down for one last peck before they started hearing voices coming from the forest behind them.

‘They have their own vineyards?’ Dean’s voice came through the trees and Sam moved to create a bit of distance between him and Auriel.

‘And a golf course… It was Gabriel’s hideout,’ Castiel replied just as they came into view.

Dean pursed his lips, nodding at the angel’s words. He looked up and saw his brother and Auriel standing in the middle of the woods and even if she looked rather normal, Sam couldn’t hide the fact that something happened. The older Winchester assessed the small distance between the pair of them and Sam’s slightly tousled up shirt, which told him enough to allow a small smirk to rise to his lips. He patted his brother in the back as him and Castiel reached them, ‘Go get ‘em, Sammy,’ he urged.

‘What took you so long?’ Sam’s cheeks tinged with a soft shade of pink as he tried to change the subject.

‘Cass was telling me about their new friends back there,’ Dean replied, adding with a knowing smile, ‘I thought you two were already in the Bunker.’

‘We were waiting for you,’ Sam covered up for them.

‘There are still no signs of Lucifer, but that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear, yet. Let’s not underestimate his threat and hurry to get you two to safety, since you can’t stay out of confrontation even if it’s for your own good,’ Auriel turned to follow the remaining path towards the Bunker, with the three men following close behind.

 

* * *

 

After the Winchesters had turned in for the night, the angels were left to themselves in the tiny space next to the top of the staircase that led to the Bunker’s front door, each of them occupying one of the blue leather armchairs that faced one another. It was almost 3 in the morning and they were trying to solve Lucifer’s conundrum – why threaten Sam and then not show up nor send someone to do his dirty work? Was it a distraction to keep them busy whilst he gave his demons in hell inspiring speeches about world domination? Or could it be nothing but an empty threat that was supposed to startle them?

‘If he really is in hell, it would have been much easier to ambush him,’ Castiel leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His blue eyes glared at a point in the distance as he envisioned the moment when they would be face to face with the devil.

‘At least now we know where he is.’

‘He can leave at any second and then our opportunity will be lost,’ the angel sighed in frustration.

Auriel mulled it over, placing a couple more peanuts inside her mouth – the ones with honey and salt she had found in one of the kitchen’s cabinets. Her interaction with Sam earlier heightened her senses and made her feel like nothing could bring her down. It was almost like having back the old Auriel from the days before the Dome. Suddenly, light surged inside her mind, ‘Then we lock him there.’

The angel leaned back in his chair, listening to her speak, ‘I’m the one in charge of the gates of hell, so if I can open them, I can close them as well. If he’s there, nor him or any of the disgraceful creatures that call it their home will be able to leave, because he gave up that control when he offered me the title!’

‘What about all the souls whose fate is in hell?’

‘We lock it so that no one can get out, but those souls can still get in.’

‘And how will we do that?’ Castiel leaned forward again, eager about the plan in hand.

‘We need to call Samael.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an incredibly late update, but I was trying to survive through my exams (yay college). Anyhow, I hope you enjoy and I appreciate all the feedback the story's been getting! x


	13. Chapter 13

After Auriel shared her plan with Castiel, they had agreed to wait for the Winchesters to wake up to tell them what they intended to do. In the short time they had before the brothers walked out of their bedrooms, Castiel went out to inform Ephraim and the group about the plan whilst Auriel stayed in the Bunker making sure they had everything set up to summon Samael as soon as possible. At around 6 in the morning, both Sam and Dean – who, due to the hunting life, were more than used to having less hours of sleep than what one would consider to be ideal – stumbled into the kitchen where they listened to the angels talk over a cup of coffee and leftover apple pie.

‘What do we need that asshole for?’ Dean grumbled still chewing on the piece of pie.

Auriel sighed, looking down at her lap mostly to avoid Sam’s gaze – they hadn’t had any alone time after their kiss earlier and even the archangel wasn’t oblivious to the tension between them, ‘The plan is to lock the Gates so that no one can get out, but without disrupting the normal order of the souls. That’s why we need to reach out to him, to assure that every single soul destined to hell still gets in.’

‘Because he’s the angel of death…’ Sam twisted the mug of coffee between his hands, watching the coffee swirl. She raised her eyes to look at the younger hunter and nodded subtly, trying to hide the way her heart sank a little at the untold part of the plan.

Not long after that, the group gathered in the Dungeon around the symbol that Auriel had drawn on the ground with a flick of her wrist that had strategically placed candles around it. The flaming circle of holy oil surrounding the devil’s trap in the room would keep Samael in place. With a click of her fingers, Auriel lit the candles and they waited for the angel to appear in the same spot where the archangel had a few months back. It wasn’t long before they were staring back at the angel in the black leather jacket standing in the middle of the fire ring. He looked between them with an amused expression on his face.

‘Who even summons nowadays?’

‘At least we make sure you show up and listen,’ Auriel replied with a fake smile.

‘Come on, Auri… There are plenty other ways to get my full attention,’ Samael grinned, missing the raging look on Sam’s face.

‘I need a favour,’ Auriel spoke calmly, plunging into the matter. Samael raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for the archangel to elaborate her request, ‘We… Well, I am going to close the gates of hell. I’ll disable every exit, but the sou-…’

‘Disable the exits?’ Samael tilted his head with a bewildered look on his face, ‘What could be so worthy of this suicide mission, sugarplum?’

‘She’s not gonna go through the trials,’ Sam retorted.

‘Of course not! She doesn’t need all that trouble,’ Samael’s eyes sparked when his gaze shifted towards Auriel, ‘But our little girl is going all kamikaze on the devil’s ass. I can’t say I’m not proud.’

‘It’s true? He’s really in there?’ Auriel questioned.

‘He is. I don’t think it’s a smart move to lock yourself there with no one to help out,’ the angel pointed out, causing confused reactions from the other men in the room.

‘You’re going to lock yourself in hell?’ Castiel whisper-shouted behind Auriel, showing his discontentment with her plan.

‘Always so sneaky, Auriel… You didn’t even tel-…’

‘Shut it, Samael,’ Auriel raised her hand to seal the angel’s lips shut, before she turned to Castiel avoiding Sam and Dean’s confused faces, ‘I have to lock it from the inside and since I’m the one who can reopen the gates they won’t kill me. Not that they could, but that’s why I need you,’ she turned around to face Samael again, ‘I need you to get me out of there as soon as possible.’

‘Why couldn’t you have Cass do it?’ Dean scolded with his hands on his hips, ‘We can’t trust this son of a bitch.’

‘Winchesters…’ Samael rolled his eyes, ‘I’m flattered that Auri thought of me to do such task – really, thank you – and just so you know, exits closed means no one gets out. Not even the mighty Castiel. To every rule there’s always an exception and in this case, I am it.’

‘Reapers and… Samael can use their own portals to deliver souls, the shutdown doesn’t exactly apply to them. Hence why I’m asking _him_ to get me out, otherwise I wouldn’t submit myself to his conditions. I’m not really worried about reapers, because they don’t pledge allegiance to either heaven or hell, unlike Samael who swings the way that favours him the most,’ Auriel tried to clear up the reason she resorted to the angel in front of them, hoping that Castiel, Sam and Dean would get on board with the plan.

‘You know me so well. What’s it going to be? A favour like that is going to cost you,’ Samael smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Wait,’ Sam interjected, searching Auriel’s face, ‘Why can’t we ask a reaper? It’ll be easier than to convince _this_ guy.’

‘They would eventually report it to Samael, so I figured it would be best to go to the original source,’ Auriel replied with sorrow in her eyes.

‘Since you decided to kill Death, someone had to step up and take the reins,’ the angel causally said, not dropping the smirk from his face. The group was out of ideas to stop Auriel from following her plan, so they backed down and allowed her to negotiate with Samael ready to interrupt in case he crossed the line.

‘Allow me to name my price: the blade. I want it back,’ the amusement dropped from Samael’s face as he stared at Auriel with a serious look.

‘ _My_ blade?’ Auriel pondered, stepping closer to the fire ring surrounding Samael, ‘No, no… You’re going to do it, because you want to and because you would much rather be on my good graces. Isn’t that right?’ she squinted her eyes menacingly, ‘You’ll get me out or else I will make sure you get my blade stuffed in your chest. That’s the end of that, are we clear?’

Samael fumed, clenching his jaw and mumbling, ‘Lousy bitch.’

She took it as a yes and twisted her wrist to put out the fire ring. Auriel walked closer to Samael, pulling out her blade in the process and snapped her fingers to restrict his movements. She made him stretch his hand out and used the tip of her blade to make a small incision in his palm, drawing out blood. After that, Auriel put her blade away and pressed her thumb against the cut on Samael’s palm, closing her eyes to organize the runes in her head that would bind Samael to the deal she had set up. ‘You’re too smart to ever want to know what happens if you disrespect the deal.’

 

* * *

 

‘I’m coming with you,’ Sam stated, following Auriel down the hallway.

‘Absolutely not,’ she scoffed without turning to look at the hunter. She had sent Samael off and all evidence of the deed was cleaned up from the Dungeon. The archangel was heading towards Sam’s room to retrieve the champagne bottles she had left there the previous day and the Winchester was hot on her heels. ‘I could barely find a way out, let alone finding one for you. Not to mention that it would be like wrapping you up and leaving you at Lucifer’s door step. With a bow and all.’

‘Then you’re not going. We’ll figure something out-…’ Sam’s digressing was interrupted by Auriel placing a finger on his lips. She grabbed his face and pulled him down to whisper, ‘Don’t worry about me.’

Auriel turned around, entering his bedroom where the bed was unmade and his clothes were haphazardly thrown on top of the chair at the desk. Sam had walked in behind her, leaving the door ajar. He approached her with his head low, measuring out his words, ‘I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Yesterday, I realized how much I actually care for you and… Auriel, I just want you to be safe.’

‘I know, Sam,’ she smiled fondly, ‘I care for you as well, but I need you to trust me when I say nothing bad will happen. I can handle it.’

Sam sighed, pulling her into a hug and resting his chin on the crown of her head. She inhaled his musk, revelling in the comfort that Sam’s arms brought her – she was ready to commit to him and only him through the bonding process. Now was as good a time as it would get, considering that she was about to leave the hunter’s side, therefore leaving him unprotected and vulnerable to Lucifer’s mind games, and that he had admitted he _did_ care about her as much as she cared for him. If there was a human that Auriel would consider binding herself to, it was Sam Winchester.

‘I want to bond with you,’ Auriel murmured into Sam’s plaid covered chest.

‘You what?’ he thought he had misheard it at first, but then realization hit him and he stared at her with a quircked brow. Could it be?

‘No, it’s not that,’ she rolled her eyes, pulling back from his embrace, having read his mind in search for his honest answer, ‘Bonding is when an angel chooses to link themselves to a human in order to protect them. I would know when you’re in danger and vice versa, a _literal_ bond would be established between us… You just have to say yes.’

‘What’s the catch?’ he asked, surveying her expression.

‘There is no catch,’ she turned to pick up the bottles from the dresser, ‘You just have to give me your soul,’ Auriel’s expression was neutral, but Sam’s eyes were ready to pop out of their orbs. She laughed it off, ‘I’m joking. So, Samuel, what do you say?’

Sam looked at her expectant eyes, questioning himself if he wanted to do it or not. He didn’t know anything about the process, besides what Auriel had just told him, and he felt compelled to research as much as he could about it to make sure he wasn’t falling in some sort of a trap - not that he thought Auriel would betray him like that, but it’s best to be safe than sorry. He also wanted to consult with his brother and Castiel. ‘I’ll get back to you on that one,’ he answered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

'Fair enough,’ she nodded, before walking out of the room carrying the champagne bottles.

 

Sam sat down at the library’s table with his laptop opened in front of him and a pile of old books that he could hide behind of, perched next to his left arm. He had scavenged the bookshelves in search for any book that could help him figure out what the bonding process was and had selected a few websites that mentioned it as well. Before he started his research, Sam searched the web for any possible cases out there - Auriel would be gone and he would much rather have his mind busy with a case than to be stuck lurking in the Bunker.

As he searched, Cass walked in the room and sat opposite from him, looking at all the books sitting on top of the table with an inquisitive expression, 'Is that for a new case? I could use some time away from all this mess.’

The hunter looked away from his screen, scratching his chin, 'We could all do… I’m trying to see if I can get us something to go from, but these books are for something else,’ he paused, eyeing the pile next to him, 'Do you know where Dean is?’

Conveniently, the older Winchester strutted into the room as Sam spoke, ‘I’m right here. What’s up?’

‘I wanted you to listen to this,’ Sam stared at his brother, waiting for him to seat down next to them at the table, ‘Cass, what can you tell me about _bonding_?’

‘Bonding? Why, Sam-…’ the angel stopped, narrowing his eyes in thought, ‘Is Auriel behind this?’

‘I’ll explain it to you, just tell me what you know about it,’ Sam closed his laptop screen and focused on Cass.

‘Well, it’s a process between a celestial being and a human. It is similar to the bond that exists between an angel and its human host, although this bonding ritual can only exist between two individuals who care deeply for one another. It’s supposed to turn the angel into the human’s guardian. This way the human will hardly take any damage, because the guardian can sense when its protégé is in danger and will come to the rescue,’ Castiel explained, looking between Sam and Dean, ‘We can only choose one human, of course.’

‘Have you done it?’ Dean asked and Cass locked eyes with the hunter for a second too long before replying, ‘No, I haven’t.’

‘Do you know the process to do it?’ Sam asked, leafing through one of the books next to him.

‘It requires a sacrifice. Exchanging a fragment of your soul for a piece of angelic Grace and sealing it with blood,’ Castiel proceeded, ‘I don’t know the exact incantations, but, Sam, did Auriel ask for this?’ the angel insisted, leaning forward in his chair.

‘She asked if I would be willing to do it.’

‘And what’d you say?’ Dean frowned, curious to find out in what point did the relationship between the archangel and his brother stood.

‘I told her that I needed some time to think about it,’ Sam answered, closing the book.

Castiel looked around the room with uneasiness, before his eyes landed back on Sam, ‘I think that, given the latest occurrences, it is best to have her as your guardian. That way we can assure your safety,’ he seemed reticent in his words, ‘Sam, are you sure the connection between you is powerful enough to withstand the process?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well… The way you feel towards her must match the way she feels towards you. If there’s an unbalance in the connection, that is, if she shows more interest in being your guardian than you in being her protégé, then she can and _will_ eventually overpower you and control you. You’d be a puppet in her hands,’ Castiel showed concern on his face as he spoke with the brothers absorbing his words, ‘If it happens the other way around, Auriel would become an easy target even for the lowest of all creatures that roam the earth.’

Sam sighed when Castiel stopped talking, searching his brother’s face for support – he always recurred to Dean when it came to making big decisions that might affect others.

‘Come on, Sammy,’ Dean brought his voice to a whisper, ‘I know you two kissed in the forest.’

‘What?’ Castiel lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

‘It doesn’t mean we’re on the same level-…’

‘So you _did_ kiss! I had my doubts before, but now that you cleared that up for me, I say you two go ahead,’ the older Winchester’s face grew a more serious expression as he faced his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes, running both his hands through his hair as he supported his head on his elbows. It was a risk – he knew _for sure_ that what he felt towards Auriel was on a higher level than what she felt for him, which meant she would be put at risk if they went through with the process. Then again, he could be wrong – what if he was underestimating her feelings towards him?

‘Go talk to her,’ Dan advised, ‘Get it all out in the open and then decide if you want to go through with it or not. Cass and I can give you two some room. We’ll go away, find us a case and leave the Bunker all to yourselves,’ he winked perceptibly at his brother who stared back with a bitch-face. 

Dean was right. He should solve this by talking to her and clearing it all out.

Sam followed through the hallway until he reached the bedroom that Auriel had taken a particular liking to and knocked on the door as he slowly opened it. She was inside, pacing the small division with a figure sitting at the end of the bed - Sam recognized it to be Gabriel, the deceased archangel. If he was dead, then how was he there?

 ‘Sam!’ Auriel exclaimed when her eyes landed on the hulking presence in her doorway. Gabriel quickly vanished in white smoke and the pair of them were left alone in the room. Sam’s mouth was slightly open and his eyes were narrowed, as he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for what he had just witnessed.

 'Don’t worry about that,’ Auriel soothed, inching towards him, 'Look, I can make one of you,’ she snapped her fingers and another Sam Winchester appeared behind her, facing the other Sam.   
The hunter felt like he was having an out of body experience as he watched an exact copy of himself pick up a small box that was on one of the shelves in Auriel’s room and inspect it.   
'Gabriel’s intricate alternative worlds?’ Auriel spoke softly as if talking to a child, 'This is just a sample of that… I didn’t get to learn much from the master before I was imprisoned.' Another command from her and fake Sam was gone.

'I didn’t know you could do that,’ Sam mumbled, recovering from the experience of seeing his clone.   
'There’s more to me than what meets the eye, Samuel,’ she said, her lips curving up into a smile.  
He had already realized that. It fascinated him - all of her powers and abilities along with her way of seeing the world. The way she always managed to present herself as mysterious and still let people in on her life.

'The bonding,’ he started, 'Are you sure you want to go through with it?’

Auriel nodded, 'Gabriel was just telling me how he thinks that now is the right time.’

'But you’re aware of the possible dangers if we don-…’

'Sam,’ she cut him off mid-sentence and approached him, taking his hands into her much smaller ones, 'I wouldn’t ask you to do it if I weren’t completely sure that it would work out. All I want is for you to be safe… and to have you with me,’ Auriel paused, their bodies only inches apart as her hands still held Sam’s, ‘Say yes to heaven. Say yes to me.’

 With his head practically spinning from being so close to Auriel, but at the same time so far away, Sam closed his eyes and nodded softly. He gave her hands a gentle squeeze before opening his eyes and whispering, 'Yes.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter, but let me know your thoughts on the story! x


	14. Chapter 14

_Auriel laid down on her back in the Dome’s white floor - a place she had grown familiar of during the time she had been in there (she’d lost count of the days by now). Her eyes studied the white ceiling shinning up above her at an unreachable distance, with her hands resting at her sides grasping the thin material of her white cotton dress. The gut wrenching blood still stained the dress even after Auriel’s continuous attempts at removing it. It was almost as if it was a permanent reminder of the reason why she was there. Everything surrounding her was quiet as if the room was cushioned and isolated from the outside world - which was, in fact, the truth. She hadn’t seen or heard anyone in what felt like eons and she could feel herself letting go of the memories she held so close to her heart, slowly sinking into oblivion, dragging her life along. Her eyes welled up with unshed tears, but Auriel paid no attention to that; she just kept watching the high-ceilings._

_A wave of chilly air hit the sole of her feet and she finally looked away, glancing down to see what had disturbed her peaceful moment. The ground beneath her started trembling, making her whole body shake gently before the tremors intensified, as if the Dome’s structure was in risk of collapsing. The archangel stood up and frantically looked around to find the source of the problem. The room kept shaking with timed spasms and she didn’t know whether she had lost it for good or if something bad was going to happen. A particularly strong wave of tremors knocked the archangel off her feet, making her land on her knees with her arms stretched out in front of her to prevent the fall. Her breathing had picked up speed as anxiety settled within her, her eyes dashed in every direction in the hopes to see what was to come before it hit her. She sat and brought her knees up to her chest, hugging herself to make her look as tiny as possible; she was powerless and she feared what might happen if someone came barging in._

_Auriel closed her eyes when the most intense wave of vibrations made the entire place shake, but soon after everything stopped and silence ruled the room once more. Auriel’s eyes shot open and fear overtook her, tears started prickling down her face as her arms hugged her knees tighter. She wanted to scream her lungs out in the hopes that someone would hear and release her from that prison, but she knew it would be in vain and no one would be there to rescue her.  
What Auriel didn’t know was that, standing outside the solid white wall that hid the entrance to the Dome, Lucifer stood, fuming in anger at his failed attempts in trying to get into the room. He had tried to break through the barriers that his brothers set around the place, but nothing he did seemed to affect the warding around the Dome. _

_He knew that it would be just a matter of time before someone - most likely Michael - realized he was there and went after him, so Lucifer couldn’t stay and finish what he’d come here for. He had to give up and walk away from the wall that separated him from Auriel, without knowing that it would be a long time before he got to see her again._

 

* * *

 

Sam and Auriel stood in front of the library’s table facing each other with Dean and Cass standing next to them, serving as their witnesses. Sam clutched in his hand a small blade that he used to slice a piece of skin on the inside of his forearm from where the blood came oozing out, splashing into the small bowl that Auriel held just below his outstretched arm. They switched utensils so that Auriel’s blood could join Sam’s in the recipient. Her skin healed itself right away and she reached out to touch Sam’s arm, healing him as well.

‘This might hurt a little,’ Auriel warned before reaching out and touching Sam’s torso over his flannel to feel his steady heartbeat. She exhaled slowly and unbuttoned the top half of Sam’s shirt, exposing his chiselled body and his anti-possession tattoo, before sliding her hand from the buttons to the middle of the hunter’s chest and closing her eyes. Sam was about to laugh and say it didn’t hurt when a piercing pain hit him square in his chest where Auriel’s hand rested.

The men watched as a silvery light travelled from the tip of her fingers to her face, spreading through her hair and her neck as it followed the lines of her body. Auriel had her eyes closed, focused on the task at hands – _literally_ – and she was glowing with Sam’s soul as it cursed through her.

'Do you willingly wish to bind yourself to me, for all of eternity?’ she asked, her expression unwavering.

'Yes,’ Sam answered and a thin line of fire rose from the bowl that he was still holding in his hand.

'Do you willingly accept to have me as your only guardian for the rest of your life?’

'Yes,’ Sam replied without hesitation and watched as another line of fire joined the first one and they both started circling each other in a hypnotic dance.

'Do you realize that this bond means you willingly and freely agree to walk with me through both Heaven and Hell?’

'Yes,’ Sam’s answer aroused a similar behaviour from the bowl as his earlier replies, but now the three lines tied in with each other, intertwining themselves to form a stronger line that glowed before disappearing into the bowl.

Auriel withdrew her hand away from Sam and opened her eyes. The silver light was gone, but now a golden light shined in her orbs before disappearing to mix with their regular colour. Everyone in the room seemed caught up in the moment as they didn’t dare moving, in fear that the bubble would burst and the harsh reality came crushing down on them. Sam felt like a part of his heart was fulfilled; the gaping hole of loss and sorrow was replaced by Auriel and the prospect of hope that he had always pinpointed her with. He felt so close to her, like this was the right thing for him to do. Sam couldn’t find the words to explain what he was feeling – it was like the English literature wasn’t enough to cover it.

Auriel felt the same way; the longing and feeling of being lost in the world were quickly replaced by Sam’s fondness and protectiveness. She felt like she could go up against anyone or anything that dared to cross her way, like she finally had earned her confidence back. It was the return of her old self.

She smiled fondly at the hunter, thus breaking the spell that lingered in the air. Dean audibly cleared his throat and Sam turned towards him, getting the hint when his brother walked towards the corner of the room. He smiled back at Auriel and joined his brother.

'How’re you feeling?’ Dean asked, quickly adding, 'Don’t turn it into a chick flick or I’ll regret asking.’

Sam huffed out a laugh, 'I feel fine.’

'Alright, that’s what matters,’ Dean surveyed his brother to make sure the whole jig wasn’t harmful, 'Listen, Cass and I… We found a vamps’ nest nearby. It should be a milk run, but it’ll give you two enough time to properly _seal the deal_.’

'What? De-’

'Just remember, Sammy, her angel blade isn’t enough protection,’ Dean mumbled with a devilish smirk on his face and walked away, leaving behind his stunned brother.

 

Dean and Cass left the Bunker at sunset with a promise of returning during the next afternoon. Silence settled in when Sam sat at the kitchen table with his laptop open in front of him and a cup of coffee next to it. He looked through the news in search for new cases, but ended up reading an article about several people living off the grid that resorted to pre-historical methods and techniques to get by. He was so focused in his reading that he didn’t notice the soft padding of Auriel’s feet when she entered the kitchen and started rummaging through the cabinets.

'You should eat something other than that,’ she said, eyeing Sam’s cup of coffee and he noticed she was eating a plum.

'Where’d you get that?’ he furrowed his brows, not remembering such thing to exist in the Bunker.

Auriel smiled, biting down on the fruit with her tongue darting out to lick the juice that dripped down the corners of her lips, 'Outside. It’s good, but it makes a mess.’

The hunter chuckled and focused back on his screen, trying to ignore Auriel’s efforts to get every single drop of juice that covered her lips. He continued reading the article, but with less interest than before - Auriel’s presence worked as a distraction for his brain and his empty stomach was starting to bother him.

'Do you want me to cook up something for you?’ Auriel asked, turning towards the kitchen counters already determined in making something for Sam to eat.

'Don’t bother, I’m okay,’ Sam answered, but saw her searching for ingredients in the several cabinets. With a sigh, he stood up and went to help her. 'What do you want to make?’

'There’s not much to go from… You don’t have a lot in here,’ she pursed her lips, opening the fridge and looking inside.

'I didn’t know you could cook,’ Sam noted, watching her lean down to inspect what he presumed to be the vegetable compartment.  

'How hard can it be?’ Auriel turned around and flashed Sam the most gorgeous smile he had ever seen tinged with a hint of mischief, ‘You can teach me.’

‘I don’t think I’d be a great teacher,’ Sam leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his flannel as he saw Auriel slowly give up on her quest.

‘Do you and your brother live out of thin air?’ she quirked an eyebrow at him, motioning towards the relatively empty kitchen.

‘We’re out on hunts a lot and when we’re not, we usually buy our food. Grocery shopping isn’t one of our main priorities, to be honest,’ Sam explained, thinking about it for the first time as well. _When was the last time I had a home cooked meal?_ He couldn’t even remember, but his stomach growled at the thought. Since they couldn’t find anything to make a proper meal in the Bunker, it was time to go out for food. A date night with Auriel – not in a romantic way, of course. _Right?_ ‘Come on, let’s go grab something to eat.’

‘I’ll zap us-‘

‘No, I’ll drive us there.’

‘But Samuel,’ Auriel whined as she followed the Winchester towards the garage, ‘It’d be so much faster.’

‘I thought you enjoyed looking out the window,’ he remarked, grabbing the first keys he found and heading towards the respective car. With a huff, Auriel followed and climbed into the passenger’s seat.

 

Sam drove them to the nearest diner and they walked inside, searching for a secluded table to sit. Auriel pointed towards a booth in the corner of the place and Sam nodded, following her towards the seat. It was crowded inside the diner, waiters were busy walking around and taking the customers’ orders and a cloud of laughter and buzz from mixed conversations filled the air around them.

Auriel scanned the establishment with her eyes darting in every direction, trying to get a glimpse of everything that happened around her. She found it fascinating: the colours and the neon, the trays of food that were delivered to every table, the uplifting atmosphere that came from the people who were talking and enjoying their food. It was amazing how they were all so carefree when at the same time, the threat of the apocalypse lingered above them. She forgot that not everyone knew about what went down in the world that was parallel to theirs. The humans around them were clueless about something that was – _quite literally_ – dangling in front of their faces. A waitress came to write down Sam’s order, keeping her eyes on her tiny notepad as she impatiently waited for Auriel to tell her what she wanted to eat.

‘She’ll have the fries,’ Sam quickly stepped in, ordering for her.

‘Just the fries?’ the woman furrowed her brows, lifting her gaze towards Auriel.

‘I like fries,’ Auriel recalled, smiling as the waitress sighed and walked away. ‘This is crazy.’

‘What?’ Sam discarded his jacket, placing it in the seat next to him.

‘All these people, they don’t know who I am… _What_ I am. Look at them,’ she mumbled, beholding everyone around with a dreamy look on her face, ‘They don’t have to worry about demons and vampires.’

‘It’s easier that way,’ Sam commented as if they’re talking about the weather outside, ‘But I prefer the hunting life. If it were a few years ago, I would say the exact opposite,’ Auriel focused her eyes on him and listened with her head supported on her hand, ‘I went to Stanford with my head set in becoming a lawyer, trying to get away from the hunting and… I just wanted to be normal. Now, I realize that this was the right choice for me. I wouldn’t trade it for one of the lives they live,’ he motioned vaguely towards the tables around them.

‘I don’t think I would like to be a human…’ Auriel pondered aloud, ‘It’s too complicated being you. You’re so fragile and deceivable.’

‘Thanks,’ Sam said sarcastically, but the conversation died when the same waitress came to their table to deliver their food. Sam’s chicken BLT and Auriel’s small basket full of french fries brought to the table an amazing scent – no wonder the place was packed. Sam thanked the waiter and, hearing his stomach growling, wasted no time picking up his sandwich and biting down on it. He realized that was the first real meal he had in a while and thanked his lucky stars that it wasn’t completely bad. Auriel picked up a fry from her basket and inspected it closely: it was coated in sprinkles of salt and herbs and she took a cautious bite, allowing her senses to get accustomed with the new flavours.

‘It still amazes me the fact that you _eat_ ,’ Sam remarked.

‘I like the combinations in the different foods,’ Auriel began, waving around a fry as she spoke, ‘It started when I was… locked up. Gabriel visited me, maybe twice, and he always brought candy with him. He encouraged me to taste it and taught me how to go past the molecules and enjoy the food.’

‘You could have visitors?’ the hunter queried.

‘I don’t know. Gabe found a way in, but I don’t think anyone was supposed to enter the Dome,’ suddenly her mood changed. She seemed upset and Sam wanted to find out why, he wanted to learn everything about her past, but he didn’t want to rub salt in an open wound – and Auriel’s wound seemed like it wouldn’t heal until she got all the answers she needed. Taking in consideration that the ones who could answer those questions were dead, that wound would remain open for as long as she remained alive.

Auriel could tell that Sam was intrigued. She had only disclosed small details about how she came to being and the way she was brought up, but for the most of it, Sam, Dean or Cass didn’t know what truly happened in her life. She figured that if she was going to say something about it, she might as well let it all out. Maybe then they would understand her choices. The archangel bit down on a couple of fries and chewed as she thought out her speech. Since she had a different relationship with Sam, she figured that it would be easy to share with him and wait for the Winchester to tell his brother and Castiel about it. That way everyone would know what really went down and it would clear some walls between them, hopefully allowing the quartet to strengthen their bonds with each other and be on the same page when it came down to their plans.

Auriel took a deep breath and pushed the basket aside, leaning forward so that only Sam could hear, ‘They only locked me away because they had to. It was foolish of me to go behind their backs after everything they’d done for me. They gave me life, they taught me everything I know,’ she noticed that Sam was listening intently, having abandoned his sandwich halfway through, ‘In the beginning it was all very different. Michael, Lucifer, Raphael and Gabriel used to be around me all the time. It was like boot camp – they wanted me to be a soldier, the greatest one to ever exist, so they had to make sure I was as strong as the four of them combined, but at the same time, prevent me from rebelling against them,’ Auriel trapped her bottom lip between her teeth and sucked in a breath, before continuing, ‘I got my blade, all of my rune knowledge and the fire from Michael. Gabriel gave me the power to create small echoes and the ability to enjoy eating,’ she smiled and Sam chuckled, ‘Raphael, well, he taught me how to keep out of human thoughts and how to filter through my own, saying they could be dangerous and misleading… If only I had listened. He insisted that I hid my emotions, always keeping a blank face on and keeping undesired people away from my mind. Finally, Lucifer, he taught me how to be cunning and evasive. He trained me to be a fighter and show no mercy – the brutal killing machine they intended to create.’

Sam listened as Auriel went on, this time speaking with a serene expression, ‘I loved to come out of Heaven and explore, to see the planet evolving and learn more about it. Gabe and Lucifer were the ones who got me out of there more often, so I naturally leaned more towards them. I used to seek them instead of Raphael or Michael. Then, Lucifer was cast out of Heaven and Michael started taking me under his wings even more than before. He was like… a father to me,’ a soft smile coloured her lips at the thought, 'And I let him down. I let them all down and they punished me by hiding me. Hiding their _little experiment_ from everyone.’

'Auriel, maybe they didn’t want to leave you there for eternity,’ Sam urged, 'If Michael and Raphael were the only ones who knew how to get you out, then that explains why they didn’t do it.’

'It’s not about that. I would rather stay locked if that meant they would all be alive and well,’ Auriel nibbled on a single fry to keep herself busy and away from the thoughts that threatened to invade her, 'Now, I’m sitting in this diner trying to ignore the fact that tomorrow I’m going to return to Hell.’

The hunter sighed, his eyes searched Auriel’s as he tried to comfort her, 'You’ll be fine. It’ll be over before you know it and you’ll be back in the Bunker with us,’ he desperately wanted to believe what he was saying. He couldn’t stop thinking about the endless things that could go wrong: what if Lucifer found her first? What would happen if she was killed or if Samael didn’t show up to bring her back?

'Finish your meal, Sam,’ Auriel said, changing the subject to take their minds off it.

They finished the meal in silence and Sam gestured for the waitress to bring them their tab. She approached them with a small paper box in her hand and a receipt on top of it, setting the items on their table.

'Complements from the gentleman over at the counter,’ she made a small motion with her head towards the front of the diner, 'Two slices of Devil’s food cake and your tab.’

Sam and Auriel stared at the box as if it had fallen from the sky. Sam looked up to see the man sitting at the counter who offered them the dessert, but found no one there. Auriel turned to look over her shoulder, but couldn’t find him either. Stunned, they both turned to the waitress who mimicked their actions, taking a double look at the counter, 'But… He was right there, just now. I served him coffee and…’ she seemed confused about the man’s sudden vanishing, 'Did he dine and dash? Hell no, not on my watch,’ the woman stormed off towards the kitchen and Sam and Auriel focused back on the box.

'You want to open it?’

'Not here,’ Sam replied, 'Let’s get back to the Bunker and see what it is. Do you… Do you think it was him?’

She shook her head, 'I didn’t feel his presence, but this is just a reminder that we’re wasting time.’  
Sam looked over at her, before inspecting the diner once more.

'Sam,’ Auriel called gently, 'If he was here, that means we might’ve missed our shot. Who knows if he’s still in Hell? And if he is, who’s to say he won’t leave before I get there?’

The Winchester didn’t want to admit that Auriel was right; that they should act as soon as possible. Slowly, he nodded his head, looking down at the box, 'You’re right. We should do it now.’

Breathing quickly, Auriel agreed. She stood up and waited for Sam to set some bills on the table, whilst she grabbed the small box. She allowed the hunter to escort them towards the car, with his hand resting on the small of her back, bringing her comfort and slowing down her breathing. They got in the car and sat in silence for a few moments, their eyes focused on the dashboard in front of them.

Auriel inhaled deeply and turned towards Sam, at the same time as his gaze shifted towards her, and leaned forward, cupping the side of his face with her hand. Their lips met as they kissed fervently inside the car, parked in the dimly lit parking lot of the diner. Sam reached out to wrap his arms around Auriel and pull her closer to him, as their kiss escalated, resting his hand at the back of her neck with his fingers threading through her locks and his other arm around her waist. The box was abandoned in Auriel’s lap when she moved her hand to grip Sam’s bicep, resulting in it falling to the floor of the car, remaining closed even though it had toppled over.

Sam pulled back to create a trail of kisses from Auriel’s mouth down to the side of her neck and towards her collarbones. To his surprise, little sounds of pleasure were escaping from the archangel’s parted lips, enticing him to continue his assault on her smooth skin. He felt a hint of resistance coming from Auriel’s hand that still rested on his arm and pulled back to watch her face. Her lips were plump from the kissing and a slight blush on her cheeks was visible under the distant glow of the restaurant’s neon sign. 

'We should go,’ she said, untangling herself from Sam’s embrace and reaching down to pick up the box. 

'Right,’ Sam mumbled, bringing himself back down to earth and focusing on getting the car to work.

 

They entered the kitchen when the clock marked 20 minutes past eleven and Auriel set the box on top of the metallic island. Sam approached her, running a hand through his hair as he sighed deeply. The archangel placed her hands above the item, hovering over it as she closed her eyes – nothing _malicious_ hit her radar, but nothing about the situation made them think they shouldn’t worry.

‘Let me,’ Sam placed his hands on the side of the box and gently pushed Auriel away, shielding her with his body, ‘On three.’

She nodded, her eyes never leaving the box as she prepared to deal with whatever might come out of it.

‘One… Two… Three,’ the hunter counted down, before opening the lid of the box and taking a look inside. An overwhelming silence took over the room as the pair of them stared dumbfounded at the object in front of them: inside the box there were two slices of chocolate cake covered in a delicious looking gooey chocolate frosting – just like the woman had told them. They seemed to have forgotten how to breath, until a vibrating sound invaded their ears and filled the room. Sam felt his pocket for his phone and scooped it out, answering the call, ‘Dean, what happened?’

_“I’ve called you like a thousand times! Are you too busy to type out a text?”_

‘Shit, sorry. We went out to eat and now-…’

_“Save the details, Romeo. Is everything alright in there?”_

‘Yeah, everything’s fine,’ Sam glimpsed over his shoulder at Auriel who was still staring at the cake as if it had challenged her for a staring contest, ‘And you two? Is the hunt over?’

_“All clear. Nest’s destroyed and we just started our trip back. We’ll be there at around 3 in the morning.”_

‘You’re coming sooner?’

_“Yeah, but don’t let us steal your thunder. You do what you have to do and you won’t even notice us.”_

Sam could hear his brother chuckle at the other end of the line and he rolled his eyes, ‘Good thing you’re coming back, because Auriel is leaving tonight.’


	15. Chapter 15

_5:43am, Men of letters’ Bunker._

The Winchesters stood outside the door to the Dungeon next to Auriel and Castiel. They both had their guns loaded with demon trapping bullets and Sam held the demon knife in his hand, additionally to his gun stashed in the back of his jeans.

‘I should go,’ Castiel announced, briefly looking at Dean who subtly nodded his head, before disappearing right in front of them. He was going to meet up with Gabriel’s squad of angels and track down Samael to make sure he followed with his end of the deal.

‘I’ll get going, as well,’ Auriel spoke, her eyes landing on Sam, ‘You two stay out here and only come in when you’re sure I’m not there anymore. I don’t think any demons will get out, but… we’re best safe than sorry, right?’

‘Yeah,’ Sam swallowed, clutching the knife tighter in his hand.

With a final sigh, Auriel turned towards Dean and approached the taller man. He pulled her in for an awkward hug and watched as the archangel backed off, focusing her attention on Sam. Her tiny hand fisted his collar, pulling him towards her and she planted her lips on his. The kiss was short, but nonetheless meaningful, and Auriel drew away from Sam without any more words. She reached out for the door handle, rotating it without hesitation and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

Outside, Dean wiggled his eyebrows at his brother in a jest way, ‘What was that all about?’

Sam couldn’t help the small smirk that rose to his lips, but he didn’t comment any further as they heard Auriel’s muffled voice coming from the other side of the wall. They stayed in silence until they were sure the room on the other side of the door was empty, before entering the Dungeon to make sure they were alone.

‘I hope everything goes according to the plan,’ Sam muttered, looking around the space.

‘She’ll be fine,’ Dean tried to comfort his brother, checking for possible hiding spots in the room, ‘She’ll be back before you know it.’

The taller Winchester nodded, frowning as he tried to convince himself of his brother’s words. He heard Dean shuffle around for his phone – probably to let Cass know that it was go time – and he scooped out his own, switching the demon knife for the black object. He had received a notification from his news alert and it opened to a police report that was partially published on a local newspaper from North Carolina. He scanned over the title ( _“Three bodies found, seven still missing”_ ) before plunging into the report and the article that mentioned a few opinions from the locals on the cause for the missing people. The more he read, the more Sam convinced himself that it was something within their area of work that was causing the sudden vanishings.

‘Here,’ he offered Dean his phone, ‘Read this.’

Dean skimmed over the article and raised his head, ‘Road trip?’

 

_6:15am, Hell._

Being in Hell again, for the first time in years, fit her like a glove. Auriel didn’t want to admit it, but being back sparked the fire within her that had long been out. She noticed that the minute she had stepped into Hell, her previous outfit was replaced by the classic white dress, only this time it didn’t have any stains: it was pure white with lace draped over the top, and it fell loosely just above her knees. She ran her hands over the front of the dress, smoothing it out as she studied her surroundings: she was alone in the passageway she had always used in the past and she was glad for it. Even though she felt a tinge of joy to be back, she hadn’t forgotten what she was here for.

‘ _Claude ostium_ ,’ Auriel murmured, raising her palms towards the wall in front of her. She heard the gates sealing at the sound of her words, meaning that Hell was on official lockdown. She had little to no time to search for Samael without being spotted. She followed along a passageway, using her instincts as she went, until she found herself in an ample space with multiple corridors. One of the entrances lead towards the place where souls would go as their destination. Auriel was entranced by the screaming and the cries for help, and she felt compelled to pass the archway, but before she could, someone grabbed her upper arm.

'Samael!’ she whisper-shouted, turning to look at the angel who stared at her as if she was a mad woman. 'What’s wrong?’

' _What’s wrong?!_ Look at you,’ he urged and Auriel stupidly looked down at her figure, 'Your aura! You’re pulsing like crazy. He’ll find us in a heartbeat.’

Auriel didn’t have time to process what the angel meant, before he started dragging her along the way he had come from.

'I didn’t come across any demon on the way here,’ Samuel mumbled, expertly navigating through the endless corridors, 'Which is a shame, really. I was looking forward to greeting a few of them, but they usually stay away from the reapers’ path. Coward little buggers, they are,’ he scoffed, turning to smirk at Auriel over his shoulder.

She furrowed her brows at him, 'Just get us out of here. Quick.’

As they walked, he atmosphere around them shifted; Auriel felt like they were being watched and out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a demon who was hurrying back towards a passageway that was close to him - he had seen them and was now on his way to tell Lucifer the news. She couldn’t risk letting him escape, so with a quick motion towards the man to let Samael know what was happening, Auriel took off after him, without caring if the angel was following her or not.

He didn’t make it very far before he was forced to stop by Auriel’s Grace, causing him to fall on his stomach as if invisible ropes had wrapped around his limbs. Knowing that she couldn’t waste time, Auriel approached the demon, withdrawing her blade from her dress’ sleeve, and stabbed the man in the middle of his back. She watched as light filled his body before his head slumped against the ground, only then pulling her blade away from the corpse lying on the floor.

Auriel looked around, but Samael was nowhere to be found. She walked back to where she had left him, but he wasn’t there either. Desperate, Auriel started wandering around the space where she’d last seen her ticket out of Hell, but came to an abrupt stop when she heard commotion coming from a hallway up ahead. Several reapers walked past her, each of them escorting a human soul, but they didn’t seem to pay any attention to her, as if they were expecting her presence. Auriel got the feeling that if she asked them about Samael, they wouldn’t spare her a second look.

'I’m going to kill him,’ Auriel grunted, looking around her.

She should’ve seen it coming: he had left her in the first chance he got and now she was stuck here. The only way to get out was by opening the Gates again, which would make her visit pointless, therefore it wasn’t an option to consider. She stood on the same spot, unmoving, until one of the reapers returned alone and headed towards what she presumed to be the portals they used to get out. If she followed him, then maybe she could hitch a ride with the reaper. Keeping a considerable distance between them, Auriel followed the man and noticed that his movements seemed robotic as if he was programmed to stroll through the same path and perform the same task every single day. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it didn’t sound too far from the truth.

She didn’t know it would take this long to get to the portals, but the air around them seemed to grow thicker and it was getting darker and darker with each step they took. The walls here were covered in skeleton bones and the moss on the ground felt slippery underneath her shoes. This was a part of Hell that she had never been to before and she doubted that the wide area at the end of the long walkway had any portals, in fact, it looked deserted. The reaper seemed confident about his destination, but as they crossed the stone archway and entered the enormous room, Auriel felt like the floor had been swept from under her feet.

'Here she is,’ that familiar cold voice sounded in Auriel’s ears, 'Well done, Sam.’

Auriel’s brain couldn’t process what was going on: Samael and Lucifer? It was a setup, that was the only valid reason she could find to explain the situation. She was lost for words once her eyes landed on the older archangel, standing next to Samael in the middle of the empty room. She could only focus on the bittersweet feeling that came with seeing him. She wanted to maim him, to cause as many damage as he had caused her, but she also longed for his affection, she needed him to ease the pain that she had gone through, the pain he had caused.

Her head cleared up when she noticed Samael wave his hand dismissively and the reaper turned to leave, no longer under the rigid posture, but looking rather confused as to why he was there. New found rage coursed through her veins and she found her voice, 'What’s going on?’

'Auriel,’ her name coming from Lucifer’s lips sounded like nails raking through a blackboard, 'We were waiting for you! We’re having some sort of a…. reunion, here.’

'Samael,’ Auriel pleaded, looking at the man. He shook his head imperceptibly, lowering his eyes to the ground and she felt her throat closing.

'It’s been a while,’ Lucifer commented, smirking at her from a distance.

Auriel closed her eyes, trying to escape that place or at least to focus on a solid plan that could get her out of there. She wasn’t ready to face Lucifer and she certainly wasn’t prepared for the confrontation.

 

_10:27am, On the road._

_Sam climbed out of the Impala, facing the one-story building covered in ivy, that stood in the middle of a few trees with foliage so dense that he could barely see the sky. He walked towards the door and stepped inside. It reminded him of a rundown warehouse, with grey walls and cement floor and small rectangular windows that barely allowed any light inside. Most part of the place bathed in darkness, but Sam’s vision was quick to adjust._

_The hunter moved forward, his steps barely audible as he went, not knowing where he was going, but something within him guided his movements. He felt strangely calm, unbothered by the unknown around him. He heard something moving behind him, slowly approaching, but before it could do anything, Sam had turned around and punched the figure that he recognized to be a young man, around his age. He didn’t stop after one punch, he kept swinging his fist until blood coated his knuckles and the man took his last breath. Sam dropped him carelessly on the ground and watched him with disinterest, before turning around to continue his path._

_The blackness that resided in the depths of his soul tugged at him, prodding him to explore further into the building. As he went, Sam faced other men and women who all ended up on the cold floor as their blood coated the hunter’s clothes and hands - he wasn’t bothered by any of that. The darkness was feeding off the lives he took, taking over his mind and body._

_At the back of the building, Sam came across a row of grey lockers that separated him from what was on the other side. He walked towards one of the ends and found a bloody woman lying on the floor. At first, he thought she was dead, but the darkness swirled inside him, thirsty for more blood, and, with the tip of his boot, Sam nudged the woman in the ribs. She quickly stood up, hissing at him, and tried to hit him across his chest. He doubted that any of the creatures he had faced until now were human: their eyes were empty with a strange cloud of mist in them and they didn’t try to put up a fight, but this one pounced at him, clawing at every piece of uncovered skin she could find._

_Sam grabbed her by her hair, ignoring her screams and attempts to fight back, and repeatedly slammed her head against the corner of the grey lockers. The screaming died down as the pounding went on and as a final blow, Sam twisted her head so that her neck hit the sharp corner. A splash of blood broke free from the woman’s skin, hitting Sam’s face and shirt. He let go of her limp body, cleaning the blood from his face with his sleeve as he assessed what he had done. A part of him felt odd about his uncaring attitude, but the darkness spoke louder, making him feel like he was unstoppable. He hadn’t felt this way since he had been addicted to demon blood and now, he felt it all flooding back into his system._

_Behind the row of lockers, Sam found a staircase that lead to a dark basement. He took the stairs down, listening to the unmistakable sound of boots padding across the cement ground on the other side of the lockers, but he only stopped when he was completely covered in the basement’s darkness._

_Up until now, Sam watched these scenes unfold through his own eyes. He felt the blood and heard the bones crunching beneath his knuckles, but when he reached the bottom of the steps, he became a bystander. He felt like a ghost watching a scene play out in front of him. There was a figure standing at the bottom of the stairs, but Sam could only make out the outlines of their profile. The other person was coming closer to them and the hunter anxiously watched the entryway to see who it was._

_When Dean reached the basement’s entrance, a beam of light burst into to room, allowing both brothers to see who was standing there with them. Auriel, dressed in a white cotton dress stained with crimson blood, stared back at Dean with an innocent smile plastered on her face._

 

Sam’s eyes shot open and the low rumbling of the Impala’s engine filled his ears. His neck hurt from the uncomfortable angle and he felt like he was covered in cold sweat.

‘Hey man, everything alright?’ Dean asked from the driver’s seat.

Sam swallowed, focused on the road in front of him, 'Yeah, I’m fine.’

‘Only 15 hours to go,’ he vaguely heard his brother talking as he recalled the vivid dream. Sam blinked several times to push the sleep away, still confused by his dream. It was so vivid, almost real, but… it was a dream. Nothing but that. He had had worse dreams and they turned out to be just a product of his subconscious. He needed to get his mind off it, so he reached for his laptop and balanced it on his thighs.

‘So, this case,’ he started and Dean reached his hand out to turn the radio volume down, 'What do you think it is?’

'I mean, we’ve got missing people in the woods, lack of witnesses to tell the tale and a whole lot of town lore. My first thought was a wendigo, but the vics wouldn’t show up, so I’m holding my guesses until we get to the morgue.’

'You’re right, wendigos usually stash the bodies and this doesn’t seem to be the case,’ Sam searched for folklore in the area they were headed, set on finding something that would give them a head start once they got to North Carolina. Dean sang along to the music, tapping his hands to the beat on the steering wheel, but it didn’t distract Sam, who kept looking through websites and news articles, hoping to find some sort of a pattern in the disappearing of the locals.

‘Oh, here we go…’ he mumbled, once he stumbled upon a story that seemed promising, ‘So, get this, a will-o’-the-wisp refers to a ghost light, believed to be spirits of the dead, fairies or other supernatural beings, seen by travellers at night. It is similar to a flickering lamp and recedes as the traveller approaches it, drawing them from the safe paths and leading them to their demise.’

‘A ghost who likes to lure others into joining him?’ Dean remarked, ‘How do we get rid of it?’

‘Doesn’t say,’ Sam scrolled through the page, ‘But if it’s a ghost, then there’s a body or something that we can burn, right?’

‘A good old salt ’n’ burn. We haven’t had one of those in a while,’ the older hunter mentioned, staring out the window as they drove past a gas station.

‘Those were simpler times,’ Sam huffed out a laugh, shaking his head as he reminisced, ‘Now we deal with archangels, Heaven and Hell and… Whatever is thrown at us.’

'I’ll tell you what, Sammy, after the whole Lucifer thing, I’m going on vacation,’ Dean said, engulfed in the scenario that had formed in his mind, 'No hunting, no worries, no nothing. Just sand and booze.’

'Ditto.’ 

 

_1:24pm, The Trickster’s Villa._

Castiel and the other angels sat by the pool in the villa’s backyard, some of them taking up loungers and others sitting by the pool’s ledge, dipping their feet in the water. They waited for Samael and Auriel to return to the house, like they had told the angel before he left to go get Auriel, but so far, there were no signs of either of them. Cass wanted to go after them, fearing that something had gone wrong, but Ephraim told him they should wait, thus, that’s what they did. It had been over 5 hours and none of the angels, other than Cass, seemed to care about the lack of news from Auriel or Samael.

'We have to do something,’ Castiel fretted for what seemed like the millionth time, 'They should’ve been back by now.’

'Brother, they’re fine,’ Ephraim droned from his spot in one of the loungers, 'If we go after them, we would only stand in their way. How would we get out? Samael can’t sneak us all out and I’m sure a squad of angels would make the alarms in Hell go off faster than we can reach for our blades. We’ll wait for a sign from them, before we intervene.’

The angel was making some valid points, but Castiel couldn’t sit by the crystal-clear pool and not worry about the archangel. He stood up and walked away from the group, headed towards the golf course, and picked up his phone to call Dean. 

_“Hey, Cass! What’s up?”_  

'Dean, where are you?’ 

_“We’re getting some food before we get back on the road. How’s things going over there?”_  

'Not great,’ Cass confessed and he vaguely heard Sam’s voice on the other side of the line, 'Auriel and Samael aren’t back and no one seems to make a big deal out of it.’ 

_“What? Weren’t they supposed to be back a long time ago?”_  

'They were,’ Castiel rolled his eyes, 'But they’re not, or at least they’re not back at the villa. I think something went wrong, Dean.’ 

_“Look, Cass… I’m sure nothing happened. Auriel can take care of herself… If Samuel tried something funny, she’d knock the wind right out of him. Let’s not worry about it, yet,”_  Dean sounded concerned and Sam’s string of questions made it very difficult for Cass to understand the older Winchester’s words,  _“Keep us updated, alright?”_  

The angel agreed and hung up the call, watching the other angels with their carefree attitude and sighed in frustration as he dialled another number on his phone. 'I need your help.’ 

 

_2:00pm, Hell._

Lucifer watched Samael and Auriel whispered between them as they tried to figure out a new escape route away from that place. So far, they had tried the obvious – returning to the arch passage and into the dark hallway, but there seemed to be an invisible shield that didn’t allow them to go through – and other creative ways, like flying out of there and coming up with a makeshift portal that would hopefully lead them somewhere else. None of those worked and the angels were out of ideas as they tried to ignore Lucifer’s taunting comments and bitter chuckles.

‘What do we do now?’ Auriel urged, looking at the dark walls around them.

‘I think it’s time to confront the elephant in the room,’ Samael sounded defeated, his eyes following Auriel’s gaze.

‘Right…’ Auriel reluctantly consented, ‘And what if things go wrong?’

‘ _When_ things go wrong, we fight. Understood?’

Auriel nodded, breathing deeply to prepare for what was to come. They turned around, Auriel avoiding any direct contact with the archangel, and Samael cleared his throat. He had always looked so determined and ready for whatever was to come, oozing confidence out of his aura, but right now, Auriel thought he looked like he would run if he had a choice. She’d do the same.

‘Let us out of here,’ Samael demanded, striding towards Lucifer.

The devil crossed his arms, using one hand to caress his stubble, ‘Or what?’

Auriel heard the familiar slide of Samael’s angel blade as he drew it from his sleeve. Lucifer smiled at the gesture, as if a small child had just threatened him with a stuffed toy, but then he saw Auriel reaching for her angel blade and he tilted his head in interest. It rested in her closed hand by the edge of her dress and he caught a glimpse of the shiny runes in the handle before they disappeared, leaving way to a fiery glow that outlined the blade - it looked like a flaming sword, Michael’s work in all its glory.

‘Huh,’ Lucifer drawled, his tongue poking at his cheek, and uncrossed his arms, addressing Samael, ‘Come on, _snake._ Let’s rattle.’

Auriel saw Samael’s smirk from the corner of her eye and next thing she knew, Lucifer was thrown back, landing with a thud on the ground. The angel walked towards the fallen archangel, gripping onto his blade, as Lucifer stood back up and caught Samael’s arm as he prepared to swing the blade. Samael shouted in agony from the scalding grip and tried to pry Lucifer’s hand away, but the archangel stood to his full height, making him fall to his knees.

Samael’s blade was still clutched tightly in his hand, but it was well within Lucifer’s reach. When the first punch hit Samael’s face, Auriel seized the opportunity to intervene. She summoned Samael’s blade towards her and it flew effortlessly from his hand to land on her outstretched palm. Auriel held both weapons with the same hand and raised her arm, directing her free hand towards the standing archangel, who was so busy punching Samael that he didn’t notice what else was going on. With a flick of her wrist, she created a fireball and threw it straight at Lucifer’s chest. As soon as it hit him, the fire spread out through Lucifer’s body without damaging him; it was simply a distraction to stop him from killing Samael, who was now on the ground.

The problem now was that the attention had turned to her. Lucifer didn’t think she would attack him, didn’t know she had the nerve to do it, but she proved to be braver than he thought. The flames died down, but his eyes flashed red as he stared her down, like a predator stalking its prey. Samael was still moving on the ground, trying to get to him, but Lucifer shut him down with a snap of his fingers. Auriel flinched in her spot when and unconscious Samael hit the ground.

‘How dare you?’ Lucifer asked curiously, slowly walking towards her. Auriel didn’t reply, instead she kept her eyes level with his as she watched him approach and switched Samael’s angel blade to her free hand. ‘You can talk to me, I’m not mad.’

Tears prickled her eyes when Lucifer started circling her and she mustered the only words she wanted him to hear, 'I hate you.’

It felt like she had stabbed him straight through the chest with both blades. Hearing those words did more damage to him than what she thought they would, but Lucifer couldn’t let it show. He moved to stand right behind her, inhaling the scent of her hair, and looked straight ahead as he felt her tremble.

'You should,’ he whispered.

'I hate you,’ she repeated with more clarity, turning around to face him, 'You ruined my life-’

'I got you out of there,’ Lucifer bellowed in anger, interrupting the archangel, 'And this is how you repay me? I should do the same they did to you. I have a pretty fancy Cage around here, you know?’

Auriel stared into Lucifer’s blue eyes, holding the eye contact until he broke it by looking around as if something had bothered him. Maybe it was her silence or the words that came out of his mouth that left a baste taste in his tongue.

'What do you want?’

'Sam Winchester. Bring him to me and I’ll handle the rest,’ Lucifer offered.

'No,’ Auriel immediately answered.

He hesitated, before consenting, 'Fine, I’m feeling generous today. How about this: we start by killing those two piles of walking flannel and their companion, Castiel. You seem perfect for the job. You’ve already gained their trust, it should be a walk in the park. What do you say?’

'You’re insane,’ Auriel accused, 'What advantage would that bring you?’

'Not much, but it would be easier to get on with my plan. World domination, destruction, so on and so on. You know the drill.’

'Let me out of here,’ Auriel’s patience was growing thin by the minute, she desperately needed to leave that place before it was too late.

'I will,’ Lucifer smiled, 'All you have to do is open the Gates.’

'You know I won’t-’

'Oh, no, I _know_ you won’t,’ he assured, 'Since that’s your final call, I have no other choice but to get rid of our friend over there.’

He gestured towards Samael, lying on the ground unconscious. Auriel looked at him over her shoulder: they didn’t have the best relationship in the planet, but she couldn’t let him die because of such a small thing as her refusing to open the Gates.

'Better,’ Lucifer said, as if a lightbulb had gone off in his brain, 'You do it. You’re wearing that cute little dress, it’s perfect for the task. Don’t worry, I’ll give him a chance to fight back.’ She turned back to look at Lucifer’s cold blue eyes, but was cut off before she even opened her mouth to speak, 'And after you’re done with that, you open the Gates and we’ll go on a Winchester hunt. Sounds fun! What do you say, Auri?’

'I’ll open the Gates,’ she sputtered, 'But I want to take Samael with me.’

Lucifer took a step forward, leaving a small gap between them and his hand found her neck, tilting her head up so she focused on his eyes as his face grew serious, 'I want them all dead. Sam, Dean, Castiel, Crowley, Samael, those angels you’ve been hanging out with. All of them, _dead_.’

'Why won’t _you_ kill them?’ she pondered and felt his fingers squeezing around her throat for a split second.

His other hand came up to caress her face as Lucifer cooed, 'I have other things to do, sweetie. Consider those deaths as a practice. I know you’ll do it, Auri. Do you know why? Because you always do what you’re told.’

He chuckled as the anger bubbled up inside her: she couldn’t be this close to Lucifer and the Cage and not do anything about it. The weight of the blades in her hands reminded her that she had to seize the opportunity. She threw Samael’s blade away from them and it slid across the floor until it was lost in the vastness of the room. Lucifer averted his eyes from her, naturally drawn towards unknown movement, and Auriel took the chance to withdraw herself from his hold. He prepared to react, but the smaller archangel raised her own blade and pointed it straight at his chest. He didn’t dare move, his eyes trained on the blade, not sure if she would do it or not - he decided not to risk it.

'Wake him up,’ Auriel demanded with a slight shake in her voice, tilting her head towards Samael. With a snap of Lucifer’s fingers, the angel woke up and started moving around trying to find his ground. Lucifer kept a blank expression in his face, but Auriel noticed the dilation of his nostrils and the small twitch in his jaw - she was playing with fire, but she didn’t want to get burned.

'Take down the shield,’ she ordered, pressing her blade closer to his chest. After a few moments, when all they could hear was Samael’s movements as he looked around for his angel blade and healed himself of his wounds, Lucifer lazily dismissed the shield around them. Auriel felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders, but there was still one thing left to do.

' _Incendio_ ,’ she murmured, making a fire ring appear around her and Lucifer. The archangel studied it unimpressed as Auriel started backing away, keeping her arm raised as she easily crossed the fire and exited the circle. Once she was out, Auriel slowly lowered her arm and put her blade away. Lucifer’s sarcastic laugh filled the room when she turned around to help Samael, followed by an angry roar.

'Auriel,’ Lucifer warned, standing at the edge of the circle. Unlike Auriel, he couldn’t cross through the fire, so he was imprisoned within the small area. 'Auriel!’

 

_3:14am, Motel in North Carolina._

Dean woke up from his dream to the sound of his phone ringing. The bright light in the dark room made it hard for him to open his eyes, leaving him fumbling around until he found the object. Meanwhile, Sam had sat up in his bed rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and anxiously waited for his brother to answer the call.

‘Cass,’ Dean mumbled, his voice still heavy with sleep. ‘Oh, finally… Listen, we’re going to wrap this case up first thing in the morning and then we’ll meet you at the Bunker.’

‘So?’ Sam asked as soon as Dean hung up the call and laid back against his pillow.

The darkness filled the room again and Dean began, ‘Auriel, Samael and Crowley just got back to the villa. Shit went down, but Cass didn’t say much… We’ll get up early, gank the son of a bitch and speed back home.’

‘Crowley was with them?’

‘Yeah… No idea why.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos, comments or just for clicking on this story!! :)  
> Yes, if you're wondering, my inspiration for the monsters that they hunt doesn't go further than what Potter has to deal with aha !


	16. Chapter 16

The trip to the morgue was a bust: the cadavers showed no signs of an attack and the coroner’s report indicated that they had died from falling down a cliff - which was the truth.

‘This… ghost thing doesn’t like to get their hands dirty,’ Dean observed as they walked towards a local bar.

Their previous trip to the park where the victims had gone missing turned out to be more enlightening than what they expected. When they woke up, the moon was still out and the Winchesters headed to the park in the hopes to catch a glimpse of the creature that was killing all of those people and, lucky enough, Dean was the first to see it. A flickering light in the distance up ahead, dancing in front of their eyes and begging them to follow it. The older Winchester fell for the creature’s spell, but Sam stopped his brother before he could walk away from him.  
‘If it keeps receding as one advances, then how are we going to know what to burn? We can’t see what this thing is… or who it is,’ Sam spoke in a hushed tone to keep their conversation private.

‘Maybe it’s the first person that went missing in there and now is getting revenge on other hikers,’ Dean noted, opening the bar door and holding it for his brother.

'That makes sense… Angry spirit whose body was probably never found and whose belongings can’t be traced back to the original owner. Sounds good to me,’ Sam sarcastically said and took a seat at the bar with Dean taking up a stool next to him and ordering drinks.

'If you come up with something better, let me know, Sherlock.’

Their impromptu trip to the bar ended up being a hit: drunk people always have stories to tell. Most of those stories would sound like nothing more than drunk tales to the regular person, but once the man started talking about the “most haunted house in the whole state”, Sam and Dean egged the man on with carefully thought out questions.

'Well, good ol’ Smithy died back in 1911. No sons or daughters, just a poor wife that moved back to her parents’ house,’ the drunk man spoke in slurred words, 'They say she left a little oil lamp next to Smithy’s picture in the house… She suffered a lot, bless her. They never found the body, you see, but she kept her hope that one day she would see him again. So, she left the lamp on when she moved out and till this very day, officers, the house still stands and the lamp still burns. They say it’s because no one ever bothered to put it out, but they’re all fools,’ the man let out a laugh, 'It’s a goddamn wooden house, isn’t it?’

'Oh yes, it is,’ Dean mumbled once they were stood outside that very house. From the outside, early in the morning, they could see a trembling light that danced behind the curtains in the upper floor of the house. They went in, rock salt shells ready to be fired in their shotguns, and took the decrepit stairs to the second floor. Midway through, one of the steps gave in and Sam slipped, a curse falling from his lips in the meantime.

'You okay?’ Dean looked over his shoulder at his brother who was partially sprawled on the staircase.

'I’m fine,’ Sam stood back up, ignoring the piercing pain coming from his knee.

On the second floor, they entered the master bedroom where a makeshift shrine was set on top of a small dresser - unlike everything in the rest of the house, the dresser was immaculate, with no dust or wood chips, as if it was recently purchased.

To prevent any unwanted attacks, the hunters grabbed the cartoons of salt and started making lines on every entrance to the room. When they were done, they stared quizzically at the shrine.

'Burn the picture?’ Sam questioned, supporting his weight on his uninjured leg.

'Yeah,’ Dean frowned, 'And blow out the lamp, for good measure.’

Dean took out his lighter and burned the picture, before blowing out the oil lamp - that had no oil by now - and watched as a thin line of smoke vanished into the air of the room. Sam stood behind his brother, expectantly, but nothing happened for a few moments; the house was completely silent and the picture burned quietly on top of the dresser.

Suddenly, a loud shreak sounded throughout the house and the place went up in flames.

'Shit,’ Dean frantically looked around the room where the flames licked at the walls surrounding them.

'Window?’ Sam urged, feeling the heat of the flames on his skin. The fall wasn’t very high, but it was enough to damage both of them - nonetheless, it was better than burning to death.

Dean nodded and they opened the large window, stepping outside onto the roof. It started collapsing under their weight and the hunters had to make a run for it, throwing themselves onto the overgrown weeds of the garden. They waited, but the harsh fall never came. The brothers stopped mid-air, floating in the darkness of the night, until they felt something grasp them before they were enveloped in a flash of white light.

 

Seconds later, Sam and Dean felt the floor of the Bunker under their feet. They stood at the head of the library’s table with Auriel between them, her hands still on each of their jackets. Samael came in shortly after them through the heavy front door and joined them, taking up a chair at the table opposite to Crowley and Castiel.

‘What the hell?’ Dean exclaimed once his brain registered everything around him.

‘Relax,’ Auriel let them both go, nudging the brothers to take a seat alongside the other men, ‘We don’t have a lot of time-…’

‘Wait, wait, wait… Just tell us what’s going on and we’ll listen to whatever you have to say,’ Dean raised both his hands as he led the conversation – Sam was caught up with the sight of Auriel in her dress, the same one he had seen her wear in his dream, ‘Why are _they_ here?’ Dean asked, visibly struggling not insult the King of Hell and the angel in the leather jacket.

‘It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation, Dean. We need all the help we can get, but please, just listen to what Auriel has to say,’ Castiel pleaded and the older hunter seemed to concede, taking up a seat at the table, but keeping his distance from Samael. Sam followed his brother, forcing himself to snap out of his reverie – he found it arousing to see Auriel in that white dress, but this was not the time to let his brain wander through such thoughts.

Auriel, standing at the same spot she had appeared with the Winchesters, took a deep breath before saying, ‘We’re running against the clock on this one. Lucifer is currently sitting in Hell, trapped in a circle of flames, but it won’t last forever. We came up with a plan and we need you to follow it down to the smallest detail without contesting, got it?’ she looked at Dean, knowing that he would oppose to what they had planned and he tilted his head, impatient to hear what the archangel had to say, ‘The plan is to swap Lucifer for Michael – we’ll get Michael out, meaning that Lucifer will take up his place in the Cage. We’ve got both demons and angels looking for something that can help us get to the Cage, because without that we can’t get to the next part of the plan. Once we get access to it, we have to get Lucifer out of his current vessel so that we can trap him.’

‘How do we do that?’ Sam frowned, trying to figure out the interlines of Auriel’s speech. Once out of the vessel, Lucifer would be shapeless, a mere light that they couldn’t _grasp_.

Auriel hesitated, ‘We need another vessel and since we’re running low on time-,’

‘No,’ Dean automatically said, crossing his arms over his chest as he faced Auriel with a stern look.

‘Dean, it’s the only choice we have,’ Cass pleaded, trying to reason with the hunter.

‘Last time we tried to do that, Sam ended up being stuck in Hell and returning soulless. I’m not even going to mention the fact that my _brother_ nearly went insane from the hallucinations after we got his soul back,’ Dean spat, ‘We’ll figure something out.’

‘Just, please, listen to the rest of the plan,’ Auriel begged, knowing that the chances of Dean relenting to the plan were very skim, but she had to try. They hadn’t gotten this far to give up now. Dean didn’t move and his intense stare at Auriel didn’t cede, so she took his silence as his willingness to hear what she was saying, ‘Sam… If he accepts Lucifer, then I can go inside his mind and trap him there. Then it would be much easier for Sam to gain control over him and kick Lucifer out when the time came. As soon as we get to the Cage, Sam expels Lucifer and it’ll all be back to normal.’

Silence fell upon them as both brothers took in what they had just heard. There were so many flaws in the plan, but at least they had _something_ to go by – a little bit of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel that made them believe it could all be over in a couple of hours. Sam didn’t want to rush to it without getting every single detail clear and make sure everyone was prepared for their roles – he didn’t oppose to accepting Lucifer, because he trusted Auriel. She wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him and she seemed determined enough to not want Lucifer around her as much as they all did. Dean, on the other side, wasn’t happy at all with the plan. He couldn’t look past all the points where it could go wrong and result in all of their deaths, his skepticism overpowered his will to trust the beings around him.

‘Wait until you hear what we have in store for Michael,’ Samael raised his eyebrows at Dean with a mocking smile on his face. Auriel sighed at the angel and rolled her eyes when the older Winchester returned his gaze to her. A silent battle settled between them before Dean widened his green eyes in realization.

‘Oh, hell no,’ he said.

‘I should’ve left you to die, Samael,’ Auriel commented, her eyes throwing daggers in the angel’s direction. She heard Crowley sniggering as she spoke again, ‘I knew you would react like that, so I sent Ephraim to search for Michael’s old vessel. I’m not sure he will find it before we lock the Cage, that’s why we thought of you as a temporary vessel. Trust me, it’s not fun to be in a vessel that doesn’t approve of the possession.’

‘No,’ Dean simply said.

‘Don’t be _thick_ ,’ Crowley criticized, ‘It’s our only chance in the near future against the devil and you’ll pass because you don’t want to be an archangel’s bitch? Come on, squirrel, there’s some pride in that!’

‘Why do we have to get Michael out?’ Sam intervened, pushing his brother back against the chair to prevent him from attacking Crowley, ‘I mean, he’s probably gone crazy by now.’

‘He doesn’t belong there!’ Auriel reminded them, feeling insulted at the fact that Sam dared to make it an option to not rescue Michael from that prison. ‘We need a ruler in Heaven, someone who knows what they’re doing and that’s not focused on their power and starting chaos. Michael will end this mess that’s been going on for too long now and he’ll make sure you two don’t set Lucifer free again,’ she paused, hoping her words would take the desired effect on both brothers, ‘It’s your bloody mistakes we’re dealing with and we’ve done our best to fix them, but all you seem to care about is yourselves. Look around you, look at all the sacrifices we’ve made to make things right again. All we expect from you is a little cooperation and if you’re not willing to do that, then I’ll happily hand over the reins and sit back as I watch you deal with a wrathful archangel whose first intentions are to see you all dead.’

Auriel couldn’t help it, but to let the words roll out of her mouth. She needed them to understand the urgency of the situation, to know that it wasn’t easy for any of them and for the Winchesters to realize that they weren’t, by far, the only ones sacrificing themselves for the greater good. She turned her back to them, allowing herself to take some calming breaths after her manifesto.

‘It’s not easy for any of us,’ Castiel spoke in a calm tone, ‘We know how hard it must be for you to do this to someone you have such great fondness over and we appreciate your help, Auriel. We’re going to grasp this opportunity, because we don’t know when we’ll have another one and I believe I speak for all of us when I say we accept the plan,’ he looked around the table expectantly, his eyes lingering on Dean who didn’t seem to be any more convinced than he was ten minutes ago.

‘Run us down through the details, one more time,’ Sam requested and Auriel reluctantly turned back around.

 

* * *

 

 

‘ _Aperta ianua!_ ’ Lucifer commanded for the third time, but everything stayed the same as it was. The incantation was supposed to reverse the closing of the gates, but, for some reason, he couldn’t make it work. Had Auriel done something to preclude the spell from working? Was he imprisoned within his own realm? Anger boiled inside him and he screamed into the empty space around him.

He mentally made a note to punish Auriel for this and he already knew how he was going to make her pay for it. It had been silly of him to give up control of such an important thing and pass it on to an angel he thought he could trust, but who ended up betraying him just like the rest of them. He couldn’t ignore it – the pain that came from Auriel’s disloyalty washed through him like a cold shower and it clashed with the intensity of his fretfulness.

He toyed with the wedding band on his left hand, twisting it around his finger as he thought about what was to come. If Auriel returned would he kill her? Could he bring himself to do it? _Well, it depends on her intentions, right?_ He thought. If she came back to kill him or to lock him up, he would have to return the favour. She wasn’t stupid, so, obviously, she wouldn’t come back alone – he had a few knights of Hell that might be up for a good old-fashioned battle, that wasn’t a problem he’d have to deal with.

Lucifer raised his brows when a thought crossed his mind: the reapers. They could enter and leave whenever they felt like it and, surely, they wouldn’t say no to _him_.

‘Samael, Samael, Samael, …’ he sighed, realizing they had thought about that as well. He let out a cold humourless chuckle and started pacing around the doomed place with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.

 

* * *

 

 

‘Why is Crowley here?’ Dean questioned, looking at the ceiling with tired eyes.

‘I’m helping,’ Crowley remarked and Sam snorted. ‘Castiel called me and I promptly answered his cry for help, you can’t blame me for wanting to make sure you don’t mess it up this time.’

The older Winchester had an answer ready at the tip of his tongue, but the angel in a trench coat came barging into the room and interrupted their talk.

‘They found it!’ Castiel announced when he returned to the war room, ‘They found the Book of the Damned in Metraton’s chambers and it has the spell that will get us to the Cage.’

‘A spell?’ Samael rose from his seat in the spinning chair and walked towards the angel, ‘That means we need a witch. Not just some witch, we need one powerful enough to cast it.’

‘I would suggest my beloved mother, but I’m sure Lucifer already took care of her,’ Crowley observed, scratching his chin.

‘Witches aren’t hard to find,’ Auriel said, ‘That’s the least of our problems. Cass, any news from Ephraim?’ the angel shook his head, his concerned eyes falling on Dean once more, ‘Alright, tell him it’s go-time.’

‘Do you think Lucifer managed to set himself free by now?’ Sam asked grimly.

‘If he isn’t free by now, it’s only a matter of minutes before he is.’

‘Let’s go over this one more time and then we’ll hunt the devil’s ass,’ Dean proposed, rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. The angels tilted their heads, cringing at the hunter’s choice of words, but relented as Auriel started going over the plan one last time.

When everyone was clear about their part in the strategy, Crowley made a swift exit and Samael, Castiel and Dean prepared to leave the Bunker, leaving behind Auriel and Sam who were supposed to catch up with them later.

‘I’ll go get-… Where’s Baby?’ Dean suddenly remembered about the abandoned Impala parked in front of their motel room, along with all their hunting gear and duffel bags.

‘Samael picked it up just before I brought you back. It should be in the garage,’ Auriel appeased him and Dean relaxed slightly.

‘Right. I’ll go get everything we need,’ with that, he left the room and headed into the depths of the building, returning shortly after.

When the two angels and Dean made their wait out through the Bunker’s front door, Sam and Auriel were finally alone, giving him the chance to get a good look at the archangel – he knew it wasn’t the right moment to be caught up on the way Auriel’s skin contrasted against the white of the dress or the way her hair flowed down her shoulders and back, framing her glowing face in the right way.

‘It’s going to be okay,’ she told him in a whisper and he nearly missed it. Auriel pushed forward and wrapped her arms around his torso, resting her cheek against his chest and listening to his erratic heartbeat. She felt Sam’s arms cradle her as he wrapped them around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

‘I know,’ he replied, kissing the top of her head.

 

The portal closed itself right after Sam stepped through it and into Hell. Auriel led them through the place, relying on her instincts to find Lucifer. The pair had to let go of everything that worried them in order for the plan to work according to their desires – if Lucifer suspected that something was going on behind their actions, they would be doomed.

Auriel could tell they were getting closer to the archangel as waves of anger seemed to ooze out of him and hit her square in the chest (maybe Sam felt it too, she didn’t know and now wasn’t the right time to ask him). Sam walked in front of her with a confidence that she didn’t feel within her, but seeing the hunter standing to his full height with his broad shoulders moving with each step he took, motivated her to straighten her back and take a lungful of air. _Let’s do this_ , Auriel thought.

It didn’t take long until they ran into Lucifer who stared at them scornfully.

‘What’s this?’ Lucifer asked mockingly, stepping closer to the new arrivals.

Sam immediately raised his hands, trying to subdue the devil from coming any closer, ‘We just want to talk.’

‘I could have sworn we didn’t have anything to talk about,’ Lucifer’s tone was borderline uninterested, but his eyes were murderous, ‘Why this sudden change of attitude?’

‘I know what you want to do and I can’t let that happen,’ Sam began, ‘You want Auriel dead after what she just did, but I have an offer to make if you reconsider your actions.’

‘Ah, Sammy, what could you possibly have to offer me that would keep me from touching your little princess who’s cowardly hiding behind you,’ Lucifer raised his voice, to make sure Auriel heard his comment.

‘I’ll be your vessel,’ Sam gulped, lowering his hands, ‘I say yes and you let her live.’

‘I have to say, you are a brave little soldier! Coming back here to face me, after that ridiculous stunt you just pulled,’ he spoke to Auriel, shaking his head in discontent, ‘That takes some serious balls, Auri. And Sam! Look at you, giving yourself up to save the _precious_ archangel.’

‘Sam,’ Auriel strode towards the hunter, pulling on his sleeve as she urged him to move, ‘Get out of here, he’s not going to change his mind.’

‘No,’ with a quick flick of his wrist, Lucifer had Auriel flying like a ragdoll across the clearing and away from Sam, ‘I changed my mind. Let’s do this, Sam.’

The hunter watched as Lucifer crept closer to him and listened to his voice sounding inside his own brain: _“We’re really going to do this, Sam? I never thought it would be that easy, but who would’ve known that all it took was a little death threat? I’ve done those a million times before and you were never moved by my words! Are you saying yes to the dress, Sammy?”_

He shut his eyes, already tired of Lucifer’s bullshit, but he had to stick to the plan, so he whispered, ‘Yes.’

Auriel watched as a flash of white light invaded the space and Lucifer’s previous vessel fell to the ground with a gruesome thud. She saw Sam, who was now under Lucifer’s control, inspect his body, stretching his limbs and smoothing out his shirt, before he turned his head to stare back at her, still on the ground with her mouth parted. From a distance, Auriel saw Sam’s eyes glow red and quickly returning to their lovely colour. Her chest heaved at the sight of Lucifer in Sam’s body – it was a whole new person standing in front of her. It wasn’t the archangel she knew and it wasn’t the hunter she was so fond of: it was and evil being, a very powerful one, whose intent was to wreck humankind and become the ruler of both Heaven and Hell, with o one to stand up to him. She would be the first to get crossed off the list, undoubtedly.

With a massive effort to escape the sort of trance Lucifer had her on, Auriel called out to Castiel and Samael through telepathy, hoping they would get there as soon as possible, because she knew that Lucifer wouldn’t take too long to assemble the puzzle pieces and lash out.

‘Auriel,’ he spoke in Sam’s voice and something about it made her shudder, ‘I really should’ve killed you sooner, but I didn’t. I took you under my wings and this is how you repay me? A set up?’

Through the corner of her eyes, she saw the Castiel, Dean and Samael running towards them, but if it wasn’t for the string of hope she clung to from the fact that it was still _Sam_ who was standing in front of her, she would’ve quit the plan altogether when she saw Sam take an offensive stance as Lucifer showed his wings. It was a display of power and domination over the rest of them and it also meant that they were _screwed_.

‘Now!’ Auriel ordered and the three angels raised their palms towards Sam, focusing everything they had within them to knock the wind out of the archangel. It all ended as soon as it started; Sam fell to the ground, unconscious, Auriel stood back up on her feet and Crowley rushed into the room carrying the device they needed to hack into Sam’s brain. Everyone moved hastily, knowing they had a short amount of time to work with, but the technique behind the metal spikes that Crowley pushed into Sam’s brain required patience. Dean wasn’t having any of that, he had his back turned to the group of four supernatural beings who were prodding at his brother’s body and only looked back when he heard Crowley chuckle in satisfaction. Sam was on the ground, tied up and with metal probes sticking out of his skull, whilst Auriel got ready to exit her vessel and join Lucifer in Sam’s mind. Due to the boding process they had gone through, there were no restrictions to Auriel possessing Sam – she wouldn’t be acting against his will and she wouldn’t need his consent.

Dean watched the scene from afar, his chest heavy and his mind racing. He shut his eyes tightly to avoid the light that came from Auriel exiting her vessel and entering his brother, leaving behind the body of a beautiful girl whose legs gave out, making her fall on her back.

 

It was an open field covered in grass that tickled her shins as she moved, with a setting sun cascading light over her skin. The inside of Sam’s mind was beautiful and Auriel couldn’t help but stare in awe at the landscape around her. She heard birds chirping in the trees surrounding the clearing and a set of steps approaching her. Auriel turned around to find Sam walking towards her with a smile on his face, like he didn’t have any care in the world. When he reached her, he bent down and planted a soft kiss on her lips, pulling back to smile fondly as if she were his entire universe.

As she looked past the hunter, Auriel spotted Lucifer right before he turned around and entered the density of the forest. She had to chase him, but she couldn’t leave Sam alone, so she grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the forest edge.

‘Where are we going?’ Sam asked.

‘Come on, we can’t let him get away,’ she replied, grunting at the effort it took to drag the hunter along with her.

‘Why can’t we stay here? It’s so relaxing here,’ Sam spoke in a dreamy voice and Auriel had to double her efforts to get him to take a single step.

‘No, Sam, we can’t lose him,’ she urged, ‘You need to come with me.’

‘Lose who?’

‘Lucifer. We have to find him and we have to trap him, remember?’ Auriel had to stop to face the hunter. They didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the dark trees and the nerves were starting to get to her.

‘What? No, he said we could stay here and enjoy the fireworks,’ Sam seemed confused about what she had said and the archangel’s heart dropped, ‘He said to leave him alone, that he’ll take care of everything for us.’

‘Sam, get out of it! He’s going to kill us all,’ Auriel tried to get the Winchester to listen, ‘Your brother, Dean, Lucifer’s going to kill him and Cass too. We need to go, right now.’

Behind them, a loud explosion sounded and they both turned their heads to see a firework exploding in the sky above them. Sam breath out a laugh and prepared to sit on the tall grass to look at the pyrotechnics.

‘No, no, no, come on, Sam. Get up, we have to get out of here,’ Auriel’s height was not an advantage right now and she had to crouch down in order to get Sam’s eyes to turn to her, ‘He’s lying. Everything he said was a lie, you have to trust me, Sam. If you care about your brother, then you have to listen to me.’

It was hard to get him to listen to her with the constant bangs going on behind her. The different colours reflected in Sam’s eyes and Auriel sighed in despair. She needed his attention and she couldn’t waste more time than she already had. As a final effort, she launched herself at the hunter, making him fall back with her on top of him and she started kissing Sam with all she had. His hands found her waist as he relaxed and started moving his lips in sync with hers. She started trailing kissed along his jawline and down his neck, murmuring words against his skin, ‘Do you care about me, Sam? Then help me. Help me find Lucifer.’

‘I care about you, Auriel, of course I do,’ Sam rolled them over, so that she was now under him and he latched his mouth to the pulse point on the side of her neck.

‘I care about you, too. That’s why I want you to gain control over your body again, so that Lucifer can be out of our lives forever. It will be just you and me, Sam.’

Sam contemplated in for a moment, the explosion in the background weren’t so loud now which allowed him to focus on what Auriel was saying, ‘That sounds good. Just me and you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I suck at updating (yes, I am aware of that), but I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave your opinion!! x


	17. Chapter 17

Sam and Auriel walked hand in hand through the forest, hoping to get as far away from Lucifer as they could. As they went, the tree tops got thicker and the rays of sun soon stopped shinning on their skin. The archangel’s mind was running fast, busy thinking where they could hide from Lucifer long enough to allow her to return back to the others. He could jump at them at any moment and inside Sam’s mind, Auriel didn’t have any powers. She had to rely on her physical strength to deter Lucifer – her chances were slim and if he got close to the pair of them, it meant Sam would be back on the backburner and Lucifer would take over once more.

She squeezed the hunter’s hand tighter and practically dragged him along the trees, hoping they would find some secluded place to hide. She rejoiced when she caught a glimpse of a grey building up ahead, but soon realized it could be a trap. Auriel stopped in her tracks, bringing Sam to a screeching halt behind her.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘What is that?’ Auriel asked, instead of answering Sam’s question, pointing towards the building.

He inspected it as if he hadn’t noticed it before and something switched in his features, ‘I recognize that place. I saw it in a dream I had the other day, but…’

‘What?’ Auriel asked concerned.

‘I don’t think we should go inside,’ Sam said, ‘It seems like a trap.’

‘Sam, this is the inside of your mind. No one better than you to know where to go to keep us safe. If you think that house isn’t a good place, then we’ll search for another one.’

Sam tried to convince himself that he was in charge of the situation, but he found it hard. He felt compelled to just lean back and relax, to take some time for himself and just let whoever was in charge of his body to do what they had to do. He sighed, looking at all the trees surrounding them before returning his eyes to the archangel standing next to him.

‘Auriel,’ he called softly, ‘You should go. I feel like I have control over myself and if we keep wasting time trying to find a place to hide, I might lose it and the whole thing would be ruined. Just go and warn the others that we don’t have much time.’

‘Sam, I’m not leaving you alone until we find a safe spot.’

‘You have to!’ Sam pressed, running a hand through his hair, ‘You can’t be here when I kick Lucifer out or else you’ll end up the same way as him.’

‘What if he comes back and persuades you?’ Auriel clung to the hunter’s hand, hoping he would back down from that crazy idea. She knew she had to leave, eventually, but she wanted to make sure Sam could handle this first. Auriel feared that her presence was the only thing keeping him sane inside his own mind and that he would lose it the moment she stepped away from him.

‘Hey, look at me,’ Sam placed his hand on her cheek, tilting her head upwards, ‘Do you trust me?’ Auriel nodded her head slowly and Sam proceeded, ‘Then go. Let’s not drag this any further than we have to.’

 

* * *

 

 

The deserted place started to get crowded as the minutes went by. First, it was only Dean, Cass, Crowley, Sam and Auriel in the room, but more people started arriving and soon enough, there were about fifteen people in the area. Six angels from Gabriel’s squad guarded the access corridor to the space, preventing any unwanted visitors to join them; Castiel and Dean stood side by side murmuring their conversation between each other as they stared down at Sam and Auriel’s unmoving bodies; Crowley stood alone watching his surroundings with narrowed eyes – never trusting a room full of angels and a hunter; Ephraim and Samael stood far back in the room bickering about the witch they had brought in to open the Cage. It was a rather young witch called Drexyl that belonged to a community of witches. He was powerful and was available when Ephraim needed his services, the only downside was his reputation as a snitch. Samael found it unacceptable that the rit zien had called in a witch that would tell the story of how he opened the Cage for Lucifer to kindly step inside in exchange of a small amount of money, to which Ephraim replied with the possibility for them to wipe his memory after the deed was done and, if it still didn’t please Samael, he would be more than welcome to escort the witch to the corridor of lost souls. Drexyl seemed to ignore all the comments about his fate and vigorously moved about the makeshift table with the necessary ingredients to cast the spell, reciting aloud some of the sentences in the open book of the damned. Lastly, Matt, Michael’s alternative vessel, looked like he was in the middle of a nightmare and was trying to wake himself up.

 

‘How’s it going back there?’ Dean asked over his shoulder, his eyes practically glued to his brother.

Drexyl looked away from the bones he was crushing with the mortar and pestle, but only spoke when Samael approached his workstation, ‘It’s getting there. Just a few more steps and everything will be ready.’

The angel looked up at Drexyl’s face, unamused, before sweeping the table with his eyes once more. A little bothered by the fact that he was being watched, the witch continued his work with a little less excitement.

Samael’s piercing gaze returned to the man and he let out a small chuckle, ‘We are definitely going to wipe out this one’s memory. Have you seen what Ephraim got us to work with?’ he voiced the question to no one in particular as he moved around the room, ‘He’s memorizing the book of the damned and I will bet he’s going to replicate it and sell it to _the community_.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Drexyl tried to fight back the accusations, but Samael gave him a deadpan look that reminded him he shouldn’t argue with angels.

 

In a split of a second, Auriel exited Sam’s body and took over her vessel. Everyone sprung to action as the archangel took a lungful of air and stood up from the dusty ground. At first, she was taken back by the amount of people there with them, but the sight of Sam unconscious on the ground reminded her of what had to be done.

‘Take it off,’ she pointed, desperately, at the device stuck in the hunter’s head. As Crowley moved to extract it, she turned to Cass and Dean, ‘He’s ready, but we don’t have a lot of time. I don’t know what will happen if Lucifer finds him before we do this.’

‘What happened in there?’ Castiel asked, but Auriel denied him an answer – she would have time to explain it all later.

‘He’s ready,’ Crowley announced and stepped back to a secluded place when Dean and Auriel approached Sam. He was still out of it, but Dean’s heart returned to a slightly regular pace knowing that the metal probes were out of his little brother’s brain.

‘I’m ready,’ Drexyl proclaimed from the back of the room and all it took was a quick telepathic communication between Cass and Auriel for the plan to put into action.

On the count of three, Castiel ordered Drexyl to summon the Cage and Auriel rested her hand on Sam’s chest to bring him back to consciousness. When the hunter woke up, it was clearly Sam who sat in the front seat. Dean offered him help standing up, relieved to finally see his brother awake and to know that all it took was just a little more effort on Sam’s behalf to end this constant nightmare they lived in. In the middle of the room, the Cage had materialized in front of everyone’s eyes and stood mighty in front of them. All they needed was to make the exchange, but Sam seemed to struggle just to keep his eyes open, let alone walk to the Cage and kick Lucifer out. Dean and Cass had to drag him towards its edge and stand there with him, offering support to the taller man.

At this point, all the last strings of hope they had were slowly vanishing – it was taking Sam an eternity to say something and there was nothing they could do to help him fight the devil from taking control over his mind and body. Auriel found herself chanting _“Fight him”_ in her mind, hoping that somehow it would help Sam stay focused on their goal and not give in to Lucifer’s manipulation. Matt, who was now standing next to Sam, looked at the scene as if he was ready to check himself into an asylum.

‘No,’ Sam murmured feebly and everyone held their breath. ‘I said no.’

Slowly, as if everything had turned to slow motion, a flash of white light came out of Sam and was absorbed by the Cage just as Drexyl cast the spell to release Michael, ‘ _Libertatem Michael archangelus!_ ’

Sam fell to the ground, despite Castiel and Dean’s efforts to keep him up, and Matt turned into a whole new person as Michael possessed him before falling to ground with a thump. Inside the Cage, Lucifer looked back at them with fury in his eyes. His gaze wandered over to where Auriel stood watching both men on the ground in shock and followed her figure as she made a move to kneel next to Michael. Her first instinct had been Sam, but since both Castiel and Dean were already trying to revive him, she turned towards the older archangel worried that something had gone wrong.

Lucifer let out a cold laugh and leaned against the metallic bars, ‘I think you chose the wrong one, sweetie.’

‘Auriel,’ Dean called, ignoring everything else around them, ‘Sam’s not breathing. I can’t find a pulse.’

‘What?’

‘He’s not breathing! Bring back my brother, Auriel,’ the older Winchester roared, ignoring Lucifer’s comments in the background as he watched Auriel abandon Michael to sit down next to Sam’s body.

‘I need someone to watch over Michael,’ even though she didn’t say his name, Auriel looked directly at Castiel as an implied request. She then turned to Sam smoothed his hair with her hand as she listened to Lucifer.

‘He’s gone. You had to stab the knife right where it hurts and choose the ape version of me when you could have had the real deal, Auriel. We would rule both Heaven and Hell together, but you blew it just like you always do. At least you have your big brother now! Good ol’ Michael is back,’ Lucifer laughed, ‘Except that he isn’t doing so well either. So many decisions, Auri. What will you do?’

‘Can we get him out of here?’ Dean turned to Samael and Ephraim who were erasing Drexyl’s memory and preparing him to return to his everyday life.

‘Let him stay,’ Auriel interrupted, ‘Undo it. Leave Sam alone.’

‘I haven’t done anything,’ Lucifer said in mock innocence – it drove Auriel up the walls when he acted like this and she knew he only wanted to get a reaction out of her. Today, he just might get one.

With a deep breath, Auriel allowed herself to relax so that she could try and bring Sam back to life. She could feel Dean’s eyes burning a hole in the back of her head as she placed her hand in the middle of Sam’s unmoving chest and healed whatever injury he might have. Nothing happened after she was done, but she saw Sam’s soul pulse bright with light and it gave her peace of mind to know that he was fine.

‘Is he okay?’ Dean asked over her shoulder, but Auriel didn’t need to answer because Sam’s eyelids fluttered and the hunter slowly opened his eyes. The people in the room let out a collective sigh of relief knowing that Sam was okay after all. Dean placed a hand on Auriel’s shoulder and squeezed lightly in appreciation for what she had done. She covered his hand with her own and smoothed her thumb over the rough patch of skin on the hunter’s hand.

‘What a lovely moment,’ Lucifer interrupted them. He had been quietly watching the scene with his arms crossed over his chest, but he couldn’t let a moment like this slide without commenting on it.

Auriel rose to her feet and stared the devil right in the eyes as she approached the Cage. She intended to tell him off one last time, but her intentions were cut short when a new voice sounded throughout the room, ‘It’s over, brother. Your realm of terror and your obsession over Auriel stop now,’ it was Michael who had regained his strength and stood mighty before all of them.

‘You think this’ll hold me forever? It won’t be long before the Winchesters need me again and they’ll come running back to let me out,’ Lucifer smirked, ‘I’m a patient guy.’

‘Get him out of here,’ Michael commanded and that was the last time they saw Lucifer.

 

* * *

 

 

‘This is where you’ve been staying?’ Michael looked around the bedroom Auriel had taken over at the Bunker with a clear distaste for the fact that she mingled with humans on his face. He kept his opinions to himself, mainly because he didn’t want to upset her after all she’d done for him.

‘Yes, the Winchesters were kind enough to offer me a room to stay in,’ Auriel explained and moved the sit on the bed, leaving Michael to sit in the chair by the desk. Now that she looked at it, she noticed a familiar paper box sitting on top of it – it was the cake she had mysteriously gotten at the diner a few days ago.

‘I’m sure it’s not _just_ their kindness that motivated them to let you stay,’ Michael remarked and turned in his seat to pick up the box Auriel had been staring at, ‘Sam and you. Is there anything I should know?’

Auriel chewed on her bottom lip as Michael peeked inside the box, ‘Not really.’

He hummed in acknowledgement, placing the box back where it belonged. Auriel watched him intently wanting to ask the older archangel a million questions, but the fear and the impact of his presence still held her back on it. So far, Michael had showed no signs of being affected by his time on the Cage and none of the angels found anything abnormal in the archangel, even though Auriel couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly okay or if he was just putting up a front to keep his impressive character.

‘I realize now that what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have locked you in the Dome, it was quite possibly my biggest mistake and I deeply regret it,’ Michael spoke assertively, ‘I hope you won’t resent me too much for it. I also want to thank you for rescuing me from that horrid place. It’s outstanding what you achieved all by yourself. You _did_ turn out to be Heaven’s greatest worrier, after all.’

‘I’d do anything for you or any of the others,’ Auriel admitted, ‘But don’t glorify me for what I did. I’ve done so many wrongs in my lifetime and it felt good to finally do something right, to fix what was broken. Lucifer’s infatuation blinded me and that got me the punishment I deserved. I’m not cut out for Heaven.’

Michael let out a small laugh at the humble words of his own creation, ‘You’re too cruel for an angel, but you’re too sweet for a devil.’

‘I think I would rather spend my time on Earth,’ the younger archangel smiled shyly.

‘I also think that’s the right call for you. I can tell Sam makes you happy and you make him happy,’ Michael said, standing up and walking towards her, ‘Just remember that you will always have me by your side, Auri.’

She felt his Grace engulf her in a warm embrace – it was a rare display of affection on Michael’s behalf and she tried to appreciate it to its fullest. She was over the moon hearing that he wasn’t going to make her go with him to Heaven and leave everyone else behind and even more hearing that he would allow her to stay with Sam.

He pulled away and moved towards the door, stopping to look one last time at Auriel who had stood up from the bed, ‘By the looks of it, I’m not the only one who’ll be watching over you.’

‘What do you mean?’

Michael gestured towards the cake, but Auriel didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her. The cake had been an offer from Lucifer – was he saying that Lucifer would be watching over her? _No, it can’t be._

‘Have you forgotten about him? Who else would send you sweets?’

 

* * *

 

 

Sam downed half of his beer in one sip whilst he stared at the empty bottles he had in front of him. He wanted a break from the world, without any care or any bad memories that had been surging to his mind, but the beer didn’t seem to be strong enough for the effect he was looking for. He thought back at Dean’s collection of whiskey sitting in the library and got up from his bed to retrieve a bottle – surely Dean wouldn’t mind if one went missing.

The younger Winchester chose one of the whiskeys available and started walking back to his room when he found Auriel leaving her bedroom.

‘Hey,’ she greeted, swiftly looking down at the bottle he was holding. She knew he was a bit inebriated, but she didn’t act on it. It was only fair that Sam decided to distance himself from the world, even if he didn’t choose the right means to do so.

He acknowledged her greeting with a nod and asked, ‘Where is Michael?’

‘He left a while ago,’ she answered, fiddling with her hands as she looked him over, ‘Are you sure you’re okay? Because I can- …’

Sam interrupted her by lifting his free hand and solemnly shaking his head. He didn’t want her to heal him, he wanted to heal himself in the most careless way he could think of. The alcohol in his brain told him there was another way he could forget about it and find solace in the comfort of something better than bitter liquid. That might have something to do with the presence of Auriel.

Under any normal condition, Sam would never act upon his thoughts. He cared too much about Auriel and he feared that she might distance herself from him if he ever suggested anything else beyond friendship. But then again, they had shared several kisses and for the most part of it, Auriel had been the instigator. _Screw it_ , he thought.

‘Come with me,’ he said, sort of asking but mostly commanding as he held out his hand for her to take.

She was intrigued, but placed her smaller hand on his nonetheless and allowed him to guide her through the corridor to this bedroom where he closed the door behind them. Auriel saw the multiple bottles scattered in the otherwise tidy room and bit her lip to avoid making any observation about it. She turned around to face the hunter and noticed that something had shifted in his gaze – his pupils were wide and his stare was almost predatory, but it didn’t throw her off. She mirrored his stare and didn’t even flinch when he set the whiskey bottle down on the dresser and made a move towards her.

Sam set his hands on Auriel’s waist, pulling her towards him and leaned down to press their lips together. She tasted the alcohol on his lips as she kissed him back slowly. Auriel wrapped her arms around his neck, threading one of her hands through his hair to feel the silky-smooth strands sliding against her skin. The feeling of her hands in his hair triggered something within the hunter, making him lower his hands towards Auriel’s backside to pick her up. Her legs instantly wrapped around him as they continued kissing with more fierceness. Sam kept one of his hands under her thighs to support her weight, whilst his other hand roamed around every piece of Auriel’s body he could find.

‘What are we doing?’ she whispered breathlessly against his lips when he pulled back for air and in the middle of all the haze, Sam’s brain reminded him that Auriel was an _angel_.

‘Uh…’ he stuttered, ‘I mean, you don’t know what we’re doing?’

She wiggled herself out of Sam’s grasp and smoother the front of her dress with her hands, ‘I know what we’re doing _right now_ , but…’

Sam exhaled, covering his eyes with one of his hands. _What was he doing?_

‘Sam,’ she breathed and he cursed himself for the feeling that it brought him hearing his name leave her lips, ‘I didn’t mean it like that. You have to teach me, that’s all.’

‘What?’ he was legit taken back by what she said, but he didn’t let the moment get away from him that easily, ‘Of course, _of course_ I’ll teach you.’

Auriel smirked before returning to the comfort of Sam’s arms, pushing up on her tiptoes to reach his lips. She moulded her body with his and allowed him to push the straps of her dress down her shoulders, letting them fall limply against her arms. Sam then started unbuttoning his flannel whilst Auriel peppered his neck with kisses that sent electric sparks running through him and took off the article of clothing, throwing it to the side carelessly. He took a step back to take off his undershirt, leaving him shirtless and exposed to Auriel’s curious eyes.

‘May I?’ Sam asked, gesturing towards Auriel’s dress. She nodded decidedly and he pushed the dress down by its straps, unveiling the archangel’s body before him. ‘Oh god,’ he inhaled, realizing her breasts were in full sight, ‘You’re so beautiful.’

‘I’ve been meaning to tell you the same thing,’ she smiled, letting her eyes roam Sam’s body.

He pulled her towards him again and trailed a path of kisses from her lips down to her chest, nipping and sucking at different spots along the way. They moved together, working to remove the remaining clothes on their bodies, until they fell on the bed with Sam lying on top of Auriel, framing her body with his forearms rested on either side of her.

Sam did all he could to make Auriel as comfortable and relaxed as possible, showering her with praises and incentives as his hands explored her body. Hearing the sounds she made and, eventually, his name coming from her lips in a low moan, drove Sam towards the precipice of ecstasy and made him subconsciously whisper her name back at her.

Their breathing got steadier by the minute and Sam moved to lay on his back, pulling Auriel by the waist to rest her head on his chest.

‘I forgot to tell you,’ she spoke after a while, ‘Remember the cake we got when we went to the diner?’

Sam furrowed his brows at the oddness of her timing, ‘Yeah, what about it?’

‘I think it was Gabriel who offered it.’


	18. Chapter 18

‘We should have ganked him while we could,’ Dean commented over the low rumble of the Impala’s engine.

‘What?’ Sam frowned, looking over at his brother from the passenger seat.

‘Lucifer.’

'Why? You think he’s going to come back?’

'It’s impossible to think he’s not going to. He always finds a way back, somehow. That’s why I say we should’ve stabbed him between the eyes.’

'Michael’s around, now. I don’t think it would be that easy for him to come back,’ Sam stated as he adjusted his position on the leather seat.

Dean nodded his head, agreeing with his brother, before raising a finger in his direction, 'Although I don’t think Michael’s any better than his brother. He’s ruling with an iron fist, up there. Can you believe he wanted to take Cass with him? He tried to talk him into it with promises of armies and whatnot.’

'What did he say?’ the younger Winchester looked at his brother again, quizzically wondering what would happen if Michael decided to take Auriel with him.

'No, of course,’ Dean spat, 'He’s staying to help Auriel find Gabriel.’

'That’s good, I like having Cass around,’ Sam smiled whilst he watched his brother from the corner of his eyes.

 

It had been a month since they had successfully locked Lucifer in his Cage and the Winchesters couldn’t complain about how life was going so far. They had more time to focus on small hunts that appeared on a weekly basis and help the angels track down the archangel Gabriel.

They drove down the road, returning to the Bunker after a successful werewolf hunt, discussing the possibility of them having a quiet life until some other big bad decided things were too quiet.

When they stepped through the Bunker’s front door, a strong smell of burnt toffee invaded their nostrils, leaving the Winchesters nauseous with its intensity. Sam was the first to walk down the metal staircase and towards the kitchen, where he found Auriel peeking into the oven. 

'Hey,’ he announced himself even though she felt his presence as soon as he stepped out of the Impala, 'Is everything alright?’ 

Auriel nodded, holding her bottom lip between her teeth whilst she opened the oven door and, without any oven mitts, reached inside to pull out a silver tray. Sam and Dean looked over at the archangel in surprise as they watched her set the tray on top of the kitchen island. It resembled a pie, but it was hard to tell because it looked nothing like it. It wasn’t round, it didn’t have the golden crust Dean loved and the smoke that came out of it was not the delicious aroma the hunter associated with pies. 

'I know you like pies,’ Auriel spoke directly to Dean, 'I figured I could bake something for you to eat after the hunt, but I’m afraid I have failed miserably.’

'Auri,’ Dean had taken to use the nickname when referring to the archangel, 'I appreciate the effort, but that looks nothing like a pie. Distant cousin, maybe, but sweetheart, next time you’ll do better.’ 

Auriel lifted her eyebrows and reached under the counter to retrieve a store-bought pie, 'I also figured I should have a backup plan, just in case things went wrong.’ 

'Sam always forgets the pie,’ Dean glanced at his brother who stood amused watching the pair of them talk, 'But you, Auri, you really are an angel sent from Heaven.’ 

'Cheesy,’ Sam booed, 'With all the lines in the world, you had to choose the obvious one?’ 

'Cut me some slack, that werewolf was a nasty thing. Speaking of which, I’m gonna hit the showers to get this grime off me,’ he was halfway through to the door when Dean looked back to warn them, 'You better not touch my pie.’ 

'That was nice of you,’ Sam praised, walking towards Auriel. 

'I know,’ she reached up to press their lips together, lingering there for a moment longer than necessary. 

'Any news?’ the hunter asked, reclining against the island as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

'No. If Gabriel doesn’t want to be found, then he won’t be found. I’m still hoping that he comes bursting through the front door to see me, but I think I have to drop my expectations.' 

Sam hummed, observing her expressionless face. After all this time he still couldn’t read her. The front she put up was too good to see through and it bothered him not knowing what was going through her mind or if something upset her. 

'How was the hunt?’ she pulled him away from his thoughts as she moved closer.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him, 'It was good, nothing out of the extraordinary.’

‘Don’t downplay it. I know those werewolves weren’t easy to deal with,’ Auriel raised her brows at Sam.

‘I came back in one piece, didn’t I?’ he joked and Auriel rolled her eyes, pushing away from the hunter.

‘You know I worry about you.’

‘I know, but there is no reason to worry. It was a simple hunt,’ Sam bit his bottom lip to avoid smiling at Auriel’s concern, ‘Come here.’

She walked back towards the younger Winchester and placed a hand on his chest, tracing patterns on the fabric of his shirt. ‘I found some files in the Dungeon about angels. _On the Inner Workings of Angels_ , ever heard of it?,’ Auriel asked, searching Sam’s eyes.

‘Uh… isn’t that the one about the Grace?’ he quirked an eyebrow at Auriel, ‘Explaining how to remove it and such?’

'Exactly. I wonder why you would need such information -  _you_  being the Men of Letters, obviously.’ 

'Why they needed it or how they got it, I don’t know. Though I doubt that they ever used it. They were more into investigating than being out on the field,’ Sam spoke slowly.

‘I guess you and your brother changed how things are done around here.’

‘We changed it in the best way possible. Could you imagine us being some uptight  _librarians_?’

Dean interrupted, bursting through the kitchen with his hair still wet and reaching for the pie sitting on top of the island. Auriel bopped Sam’s nose before turning her attention towards the older brother.

 

The archangel sat on the edge of Sam’s bed wearing one of his shirts whilst she read a book of spells that they found in the Bunker’s archives. Sam returned from his quick shower to lay on his bed, watching Auriel skim her eyes over the prints of ink on the pages.

'Is that what you do when I’m asleep?’

'Not always,’ Auriel smiled, 'Sometimes I’m not even here.’

'Oh yeah? Where do you go?’ Sam supported himself on his elbow to get a better look at Auriel.   
'I venture,’ she said nonchalantly. Sam let out a small chuckle and flipped himself onto his back, gazing up at the ceiling. 'Oh, look,' she called, pointing at a page with messy handwriting on it, 'A demon curing ritual. Why would anyone think they need a cure? I say off with their heads,' the archangel mocked, pronouncing the last words theatrically.

'I would’ve agreed with you if I hadn’t used it on my brother.'

Auriel arched her brows in surprise, not taking her eyes off the book, 'Was Dean a demon?'

'A knight of Hell, actually, as he says - I think he’s proud of that part. He was turned by the Mark of Cain,' Sam told her.

She paused her reading and set the book down in her lap to look at Sam. ‘You two have really checked everything on the list, huh? From archangels to the Mark.’

‘It wasn’t my ideal bucket list.’

Auriel opened the book again and turned the page she had been going through. Sam stretched out his right arm to place on top of her legs and started drawing patterns on her skin with his fingertips. It didn’t throw her off her task and when she unexpectedly lunged forward, crossing her legs beneath her body, Sam’s arm fell limply on top of the bed cover.

‘An alternative reality spell?’ Auriel squeaked, ‘Sam, this is it!’

‘What?’ he shot up, sitting against the headboard.

‘This could lead us to Gabriel. If we could get to the universe he’s been staying at, then we could convince him to come back,’ there was pure glee in her eyes, which made Sam frown in concern.

‘Auriel,’ he called gently, ‘What if he doesn’t want to come back? I mean, he ought to know that you came back and if he didn’t return, then maybe he doesn’t want to be involved with all of this.’

‘What are you trying to say?’ Auriel set the book down on the nightstand and turned to look at Sam properly.

‘Don’t you think it’s weird that Ephraim and the others who are supposedly led by Gabriel, still haven’t managed to find him?’

She stuttered, opening her mouth to speak several times before she realized she didn’t have an answer to give him. ‘Are they lying to me?’ she whispered, allowing the hurt to come through her voice.

The hunter sighed, running a hand through his hair, ‘I’m not saying they are, but I think you should talk to them. I can go with you, if you want to.’

‘No, I think I’d rather do it alone,’ she squinted her eyes, focusing on a point past Sam, ‘You get some sleep and I’ll be back before you know it.’

‘Be careful,’ Sam took her hand before she got up from the bed and she replied with a comforting smile as she leaned down to peck his lips.

 

* * *

 

 

Auriel pondered between zapping herself out of the Bunker right outside Sam’s bedroom door or if she should do it after she was out of the building. She walked through the corridor, changing her clothes with a snap of her fingers and tied her hair in a ponytail as she weighed her options. Well… since she had mindlessly reached the library, the archangel figured she should go with the latter option.

She took a deep breath as she climbed the stairs, thinking about how she would confront the angels and how _stupid_ she would feel if they had been hiding Gabriel from her. She couldn’t come up with a valid reason as to why they would do such thing so, swinging the door shut behind her, Auriel tried to empty her mind and leave her concerns behind.

When she turned to face what would normally be a paved road surrounded by tall trees, Auriel gasped in surprise at the sight of a great hall with a marble staircase opposite her standing tall and mighty in the closed room lit up by torches on the walls. The archangel looked around without leaving her spot, turning her head to make sure the front door to the Bunker was still there: it wasn’t.

‘What is this place,’ she whispered, but her words seemed to echo throughout the room. She noticed the paintings on the walls and squinted her eyes to try and make something out of the colours, but she was too far away to understand what those were and her fear to move stopped her from walking over to inspect them.

She felt silly standing there when after a while nothing seemed to change in the room. Shutting her eyes tight as if to chastise her curiosity, Auriel took a few tentative steps towards the grand staircase and opened her eyes to look around. Everything was the same, only now she could get a better look at the paintings hanging on the walls. They portrayed several winged beings gathered on a cliff as they watched someone like them walk away from the group as if if they had kicked him out. On the wall opposite her, a bigger painting showed a powerful man holding a scale in one hand and pointing a sword at the demon at his feet with the other – Michael’s victory over Lucifer.

She turned away from the images and, with it being her only option, walked towards the staircase, climbing the marble steps until she reached the top. The archangel chose the stairs at her right and treaded up the smaller steps, reaching a long corridor with tall windows on each side. With a sigh, she pushed herself to move forward where she found a door with golden workmanship and a large knob. Auriel grabbed it and swung the door open to reveal a drawing room.

She took a glance at the corridor behind her before closing the door and stepping further into the room. ‘What on Earth is going on…’ Auriel mumbled to herself.

When the same door she had walked through swung open to reveal Michael, she felt relieved that someone was there to explain her what was going on. She mustered a shy smile, but he looked at her in disdain as he walked right past her figure.

‘I thought I had warned you about showing up here,’ he said with anger in his voice, ‘Do you think I won’t follow through with my word?’

She was just about to open her mouth to ask what this was all about when Michael cut her off by raising his hand, ‘It is best if you leave before either of us regrets it. Does he even know you’re here?’ he paused, ‘Of course. He _sent_ you here to spy on us, didn’t he?’

‘What are you talking about? _Who_ sent me here?’

Michael laughed in irony, ‘Let me guess: he kicked you out and now you want me to take you under my wing? There will have to be a freezing day in Hell before that happens, Auriel.’

‘You’re not making sense, Michael. What is happening?’ she knew her questions wouldn’t do much to help her figure out what was going on, because Michael was acting out of line with himself and apparently his anger was due to her being in that weird place.

‘Leave,’ the older archangel unsheathed his archangel blade and started pacing towards her. Auriel quickly raised both her hands, her eyes flying from the blade to Michael’s crazed look on his face. It would be best if she left him alone, so she walked backwards towards the door and, with her hands still up, reached for the doorknob.

‘What is this _traitor_ doing here?’ she heard someone from the other side of the door and when she turned her head to see who it was, her mouth fell open in surprise.

‘Raphael? I thought you were dead!’ she blurted out in shock and watched his eyes go wide at her words.

‘ _Dead?_ Is that why he sent you here?’ he stormed, ‘He can kiss his little toy goodbye, then.’

Without any time to waste, Raphael reached for his blade and stabbed it through Auriel’s chest, stealing the light from her eyes and coating the door with her blood.

 

Auriel opened her eyes and faced a familiar stone ceiling. She glanced down to inspect her chest, but there was nothing there. No blood, no bruise, no nothing. Everything was back to normal and she was back in the room with the grand staircase and the paintings. Her breathing accelerated as she got to her feet and franticly looked around for company. She was alone and the room was as quiet as it had been before.

Her brain was running wild and she was desperate to find a way out of there – whatever this was, it had gotten her killed by Raphael and then brought back as if nothing had happened.

The archangel walked back towards the staircase, but this time took a left when she reached the top. Those stairs led her to a very different setting. It was gloomy and dark, making her want to go back and find another way out. If the other corridor had two archangels wanting to kill her, this one didn’t assure her something like that wouldn’t happen again. It resembled a dungeon with its stone pillars and humidity decking the walls, the low ceiling hovering just above her head where stalactites hung like sharp weapons.

She walked across it, joined by the sound of her footsteps against the stone floor, and found a poorly lit staircase that brought her to a wide chamber. The centre piece was the immense fireplace where wood burned away slowly, making the flames dance, casting shadows on the floor. Auriel got so absorbed in the way the fire moved gracefully that she didn’t hear someone coming into the room.

‘I didn’t expect you to be back this early,’ that grave voice Auriel had heard so many times rung once more in her ears, ‘You usually take longer in your promenades.’

‘ _You_?’

Lucifer furrowed his brows, ‘Me? What about me? Didn’t expect to see me in my haven?’

‘Your haven? You’re supposed to be locked up! This isn’t making any sense,’ she ran her hands through her hair in despair and started pacing in front of the fireplace.

Lucifer tilted his head to the side, squinting his eyes at her behaviour, ‘I’m supposed to be lo-… Auri, did something happen to you? Did you run into someone while you were out?’

‘What?’ she cried in disbelief. Upon encountering Michael and Raphael, she came face to face with death, but Lucifer showed concern towards her? ‘I was at the Bunker and next thing I know, I’m trapped inside this place and I’ve got Michael wanting to kill me, Raphael actually killing me and… _you_? Seriously?’

‘Wait, hold on,’ Lucifer urged, ‘What did you just say? Who’s trying to kill you and _who_ killed you?’ Auriel gave him one last desperate look before she turned around and looked for another way out of the room. ‘You said Michael and Raphael, didn’t you? I heard that correctly?’

There was no other way out besides the stairs that led to the dungeons, but she had to pass through Lucifer to get there, which, of course, failed as soon as she was less than three feet away from him.

‘They came back? Auriel, listen to me. I need you to tell me exactly what happened,’ he grabbed her by her upper arms, locking her in place, ‘Were they alone? What did they do to you?’

‘Let go of me!’ she struggled in his hold, but to her surprise, he let her go as soon as she said it.

He was confused by the way she was acting and the things she was saying. When he picked up on what was going on, his eyes flashed red in anger and he reached for her again, this time grabbing her by her neck. Auriel squeaked when he dragged her so close to him she could feel his muscles moving underneath his shirt and she felt him breathing against her cheek.

‘They thought they could side-track me with this cheap imitation? They almost got me, I must hand it to them, but you’re not Auriel. You’re not even close to _my_ Auriel. What did they do to her?’

‘Lucifer, please, I’m Auriel! I just want to get out of here,’ she pleaded, but her tutted at her words and readjusted his grip on her.

‘You’re Auriel? Then, tell me, what were my first words to you after you opened the Cage?’

Auriel couldn’t help the surprise that fell over her, it was as if she had lost all control over herself, ‘I opened the Cage… to let you out?

He let out an icy laugh, raising a hand to trace the side of her face, ‘My dear, what a terrible answer. You could have at least made an effort to guess it.’

Lucifer’s mocking smile was the last thing Auriel saw before hearing her own neck snap and blackness filled her world again.

 

As soon as her back hit the cold marble, Auriel’s eyes shot open and she looked around. The same room, the same staircase, the same paintings. She got up and didn’t even bother to question what was happening to her. It was some sort of loop that reset every time she died and she was getting sick of it. She climbed the steps with more determination than before and almost missed the alteration at the top of the stairs in her focus to choose another way to go. Where the previous times had been solid wall, now stood a white door with no handle. Auriel sighed, placing her palm flat against the door, but nothing happened. She tried pushing it but it also didn’t work. Tentatively, she knocked three times and waited for an answer.

‘Come in,’ the voice came from the other side of the door.

‘I have no…’ Auriel interrupted herself when a golden knob materialized in front of her. She deadpanned before twisting it and opening the door.

Inside, Gabriel sat with his left ankle resting on his right knee in a red velvet armchair, holding a glass of something translucid on his hand. Next to him there was another identical armchair and a table with several bottles on top.

‘Have a seat, Auri,’ he gestured towards the chair smiling.

She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. She could handle getting killed by Raphael and Lucifer – it was something that she could _expect_ from them – but she wouldn’t take it happening at the hands of Gabriel. She slumped down on the chair next to him and buried her head in her hands, in the hopes that it would take her back to the Bunker and to the comfort of Sam’s presence.

‘I know it was rough on you, kid,’ Gabriel took a swig from his drink, ‘Feel free to take the entire bottle, I won’t tell a soul.’

Auriel looked up at the archangel sitting next to her and exhaled loudly, ‘Are you going to kill me too?’

‘I would never do such horrible thing, munchkin,’ Gabriel leaned forward, but it made her slump further into her chair. He frowned at her, ‘I guess I have some explaining to do.’

Auriel crossed her arms, waiting for Gabriel to spill out his story until something triggered her back into the room outside that door, stuck on what seemed to be a never-ending loop.

‘I brought you here so that you could see the consequences of your actions,’ Gabriel’s voice was steady, but his eyes wavered towards the white tile on the floor, ‘What you saw out there was a world where I never died, because I never had to confront my brother.’

‘Wait… Are you serious?’ Auriel realized that this wasn’t just another scenario that ended up with her dying at the hands of another archangel and what Gabriel was saying rang some bells in her head.

‘Yes. I created this whole thing for you to realize what you’re trying to do and what consequences that come with it, Auri. I apologize for having you killed. Twice,’ he pursed his lips, scrunching his eyes to look at the archangel.

Auriel straightened up, her mind twisted trying to get a full grasp of the situation, ‘What do you mean by what I’m trying to do?’

‘You may not have realized it, but you’re basically trying to get the old gang back together, like the way you remember it. You rescued Michael, you’re trying to find me and next thing you know, you’ll try to resuscitate Raphael and bring Lucifer back to make us all hold hands and sing together. It doesn’t work like that. What’s done is done and you can’t go around changing things just because it’s how you feel comfortable, how you feel _happy_.’

‘That’s not what I’m doing, Gabe. I brought Michael back, because him imprisoned in that Cage was wrong… and now I’m… I was trying to find you, but only because you’re alive and-,’

‘Sweetheart, first, I’m not _alive_ , per se. Lucifer killed me, there’s no doubt there, but you should know that we never truly die. I’m still around, just not in a physical way,’ Gabriel quirked an eyebrow at her, ‘Second, I’m here to explain why I put you through all of this and hopefully persuade you out of doing whatever that little brain of yours’s got cooking. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m happy you saved Michael – at least one of us made it out alive and semi-well.’

Auriel sighed and reclined back in her chair, ready to listen to the older archangel.

‘Again, what you just saw was a world where all five of us were alive. Back when we found you on earth in the day Lucifer manipulated you and brought you back to Heaven, your attitude was a little different. You weren’t upset that you hurt all those people and you never showed remorse for falling for Lucifer’s small talk. When we faced you with Michael’s plans, you deserted us and joined Lucifer. From then on, the world was divided in two with Heaven and Hell battling each other and Lucifer turned you into a… high class demon, you could say. You became his second in command in Hell and all bonds with me, Michael or Raphael were obviously extinct.’

‘All of that happened because I decided to search for you?’ she was incredulous, not wanting to take Gabriel’s word for it.

‘Not as an immediate outcome, no. But in the long term, something like that would happen,’ Gabriel tilted his head wondering if he should show her how the world would turn out if she brought all four of them back together instead.

‘So, in that world I’m a demon,’ she waited for his nod of approval, before continuing, ‘And what happens to Sam and Dean in that alternative reality?’

Gabriel smirked, ‘I don’t know how Michael allowed what you’ve got going on with Sam, but I’m glad to know you’ve still got spike in you, kiddo. Well, to answer your not so subtle question, no, you and Sam don’t even come across each other and if you did, you would end up killing him and his brother. They’re not hunters in that reality. Lucifer never needed to breed a vessel for the showdown with Michael, so no deal was made with Mary Winchester and they grew up to a normal life.’

Auriel nodded slowly, convincing herself that it was a terrible universe and that she should in no way consider the possibility of living in it. There was still something bugging her and she had to ask, ‘If you’re alive in some sort of way, then what I’m seeing here is really you or is it my subconscious having a laugh at me? The cake back at the diner, the angel squad and the villa, was it all you?’

‘Don’t worry, it’s all authentic here,’ Gabriel chuckled, reaching forward to pat her hand, ‘Yes, I sent you that cake and I also sent my protégés to help you. They never got any contact with me, they don’t know I sent them clues and helped them reach you through Castiel.’

The archangel could help laughing. She had missed his company so much and she had never stopped to look at the signs of his presence all around her, continuing to protect her from herself even after his death. With a smile, Auriel leaned forward, ‘Can I ask for two things?’

‘You can ask, but I won’t promise to comply.’

She huffed, noticing the playfulness in Gabriel’s tone, ‘Can I have a hug?’

Gabriel perked up in his seat, frowning in curiosity at Auriel’s request, ‘Isn’t that what humans-,’

‘Oh, shut it,’ she interrupted and stood up to launch herself against Gabriel’s chest, squashing her face against his shirt as she felt his arms encircling her into a warm hug.

‘What’s the other request?’ Gabriel questioned with his chin pressed against the crown of her head.

Auriel turned to press her cheek against the archangel’s upper arm, her gaze trained on the only door in the room, 'Take me to the world you showed me.’


End file.
